NOTE: I actually wrote this the night after I got the pin, but am just now posting it. It’s still not perfect, but it’s close enough.

My dad died 26 years ago from injuries sustained in a motorcyle accident. I was 10 years old. He was a great dad. He taught me how to play baseball and always went to my little league games. My Mom says he would always say “That’s my boy!” when I played. He taught me to play pool and snooker at the recreation center on base (he was in the Army). We played Atari Basketball and Midway’s Sea Wolf at a place down the street… and we played pinball.

That place down the street had a Harlem Globetrotters pinball machine. I rememember playing it many times with my Dad. Was he any good? I honestly don’t remember, but it doesn’t matter. My Dad played pinball with me and that’s all that matters. It’s one of my fondest memories of him.

Now that I’m grown and have a gameroom of my own, I thought it would be really cool to see if I could get a Harlem Globetrotters pinball machine of my own. I poked around online a few years ago but didn’t find one in my price range. It came up again in my mind so I posted on a local mailing list a few weeks ago and as luck would have it, a local dealer, Donnie, had one and agreed to sell it to me 100% working and at a great price. I picked it up last night and on the drive there I actually teared up a few times thinking about my Dad and playing this game with him.

Tonight I set it up and played some games with my almost-5-year-old daughter. Hopefully I am giving her some great memories of playing the same pinball machine with her dad. So, the moral of the story? Enjoy your children. Play baseball, video games, chess, pinball or something with them. Make memories. You never know what memory will stay with them for a lifetime. I think I’ll own this pinball machine forever. And Dad, I’ll keep a credit in it for you.