Pinball
I started playing pinball at Gabby Avenue News in Meadville when I was in junior high. Almost every morning before school I would try to get in a few games before dashing off to homeroom. After that, I played mostly at the College Pizza Villa on North Main Street. When I got to Wittenberg, I was happy to see that there were 4 or 5 machines in the basement of the student union. To say the least, I was a regular down there. With the advent of video games, the popularity of pinball faded, and the machines that were being made were not so interesting to me. They were way too complicated with multiple levels and lots of ramps and extra bells and whistles. For me, the heyday of the pins was from the mid 60s to the mid 70s. / Peter has always been interested in my younger days and he loves to hear me tell stories about growing up in Meadville. He especially liked the pinball related anecdotes. / Some time ago my brother got a machine for his basement. It is made by Stern and is the Elvis model. It is one of the later designs, and initially it didn’t interest me so much. But whenever we would visit, Pete would head down and spend lots of time playing. Eventually I became hooked and we now play quite a bit together. Because of his CP, he plays both flippers with his right hand, and he is amazing good. / Union doesn’t regularly have any machines, but during special weekend events they bring in one or two that are set up to play for free. Cristine and I were visiting him yesterday and he and I went over to Reamer and played this one. Like the Elvis game, it is of the modern variety with way too much going on, but as you can see in the high score list, I totally killed it. Score inflation has gotten out of hand though; over a billion points is just wrong. At some point during my big game, Carlene Carter’s “Every Little Thing” started playing and after we were done, I was surprised to see in the credits that the female voice that pops up on occasion was hers. Weird, but I went to iTunes today and bought the song.
Pearl and her bowl
In many ways Pearl is a true retriever. She is not obsessed with balls or sticks but she really loves her bowl. Since she was young she would eat and then pick it up and carry it around the house. We never know where it will end up, and sometimes in the morning it is a pain to have to look for it. About a year ago, I began to make her go find it before I would feed her. She is mostly good at it, but sometimes she brings me one of her stuffed animals instead. But she has figured out that bringing me the bowl means she gets to eat so there is some incentive for her. The only problem is that at random times throughout the day she will get the bowl and carry it around expecting a meal. I can mostly ignore it, but once in a great while I succumb to her cuteness and give in.
Waffle House (again)
When Cris and I drove to South Carolina this year we left home late in the day and drove through the night as we usually do. We always joke about the IHOP-Waffle House line and how it mostly mirrors the Mason-Dixon line. The Waffle House breakfasts can be a bit on the greasy side, but there isn’t much choice on I-95. We were amazed to find an IHOP near Florence, SC so we stopped and ate at around 6.oo am. We got back on the road and a bit later we stopped for gas. We laughed because it was the same exit where we ate at a Waffle House last year. The sun had just broken through the clouds and the building looked great in the morning light.
Pearl
For some reason, Pearl has become very attached to her leash. When we walk down to the bottom of our street, we need one to cross the Amherst Road. Just this past summer, she started wanting to carry it in her mouth. If I have it in my hand, she keeps nudging me until I give it to her. She is the sweetest dog.
Milk Cap
One day when I was in college, I was standing in front of the mailboxes in Ferncliff Hall and dropped a penny. It landed on its edge between my feet and stayed that way. I thought it was really cool and decided to leave it there. I walked by several hours later and it was still in the same place in spite of all the people who had walked by. I thought of it as a good omen; something unusual that I was a part of, and I remember that day as being especially nice. A similar thing happened with an aspirin a few years later and I began to pay attention to the correlation between dropping something that stayed on its edge and having a happy and productive day. Over all these years it has maybe happened 20 or so times with various objects, and I always feel elated. Yesterday morning as I was making tea for Cris and me, I took the cap off the milk and dropped it. It turned out to be a very nice day.
Wine Bib
My friend Peter Carroll has a way of making these little napkin bibs for wine bottles to prevent drips. His always look perfect. Cris did a pretty good job on this one on Thanksgiving, but we are still aspiring to Peter’s high standards.
There was a very nice mention of the Willard suitcase project on Very Short List today. It is a way cool website. Here’s the link. I’m so grateful for all the attention, and welcome to all of you new subscribers to my notebook.
Chick’s in West Haven, CT
After I left Yale yesterday I went to Chick’s in West Haven to eat some clams. Peter and I have been making a bit of a study of fried clams in the Northeast, and he had encouraged me to check it out. (See previous post) I had originally hoped to go to Stowe’s, which is just down the road, but they are closed on Mondays. Chick’s is big, and was quite empty at about 4.00 pm, which made me a bit nervous. But the clams were very good.
They didn’t have that real ocean taste like ones from the North Shore of Massachusetts, as I assume they came from somewhere in the Sound, but the breading was very light and they were quite hot. It was nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy the late afternoon light.
JFK Terminal 4 again
I drove down to JFK again early this morning to pick up Cris and her co-worker Kate. As we walked out of the terminal, the sun was just coming up and the sky was wild. There is something about airports and light. / I just want to take a minute to acknowledge all of the new subscribers to this site. The suitcase project has brought many of you here, and I really appreciate your interest and comments. Thank you all so much.
Monday morning 6.15
A very interesting weekend here. Lost power here at 10 Saturday night. Cell phone towers were down too, so no email or internet. Drove Peter back to Union on Sunday afternoon, and finally got a signal at one of the Berkshire rest areas on the Pike. Amazingly, skyped Cris in Gaza from my phone and she assured me she was ok, in spite of the recent hostilities. Then saw all the email from Kickstarter backers and am just totally blown away. So many people to respond to and thank and it will take a while. Got back to a very dark house last night, stoked up the wood stove and lit some candles. Power came back on just after 6.00 this morning. / Thanks to everyone for the support and encouragement; I’ll be posting an update on Kickstarter in a bit.
Spikes
When I was in high school, I played soccer. I spent alot of time practicing on fields very much like the ones near the UMASS football stadium. We were coached by Mr Shuster, who was from eastern Massachusetts and had a very heavy New England accent. His favorite expression was “Can of corn!” which was his catch-all phrase for something that was supposed to be really easy. At the end of the season he told me that I was the only player that he ever coached that started the early games on the first team and ended up the season not even traveling to the final away game. I never fully understood what I had done wrong to be demoted so far, and he didn’t seem interested in explaining his logic. It was an early example for me of having someone in a position of authority assuming I knew what was going on when I hadn’t a clue. Anyway, I had fun playing. When Pearl and I were walking across the rugby pitch yesterday I looked down and saw these spike marks in the muddy grass and it brought back a flood of memories. / Today is St. Crispin’s Day. I like the Olivier version best. Check it out. It still gives me chills.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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