sheeeit, and those things mentioned in my previous post… that was just the first things that came to mind…
Summer Vacation part deux:
-Weekends – parental figure takes you to the mall. Of course, at this time that meant ARCADE TIME. I’d get something like a 5 or more to just go wild with in the arcade. At Mall of Memphis, there was this legendary spot called the “Gold Mine”… it was even designed to look like some cave/mining area, with a rocky exterior, with the yellow/gold lettering on the front. This was the place where I first saw Street Fighter II…but that was just in 1991… besides that, they had Tron, Indiana Jones, Rampage, Spy Hunter, Pacman/Ms. Pacman, Galaga, Galaga '88(which most people forgot, sadly), so much stuff… this was also the place where I first saw Mortal Kombat… thinking “interesting… it looks like real people, like Pit Fighter (they had this too)” then I saw Sub Zero ripping the head off his opponent and mind = blown like WHOAHOLYSHITTT.AWESOME. Once people started finding out that you killed your opponents in the game it spread like wildfire… and it was definitely the new big deal for awhile. Oh yeah, Sega’s “Time Traveler” hologram game… Gold Mine had that too…along with Kung Fu, Karate Champ, Zaxxon, Dragon’s Lair, Asteroids, various pinball machines, Basically, they had everything.
…and so it was always a sad thing when you look over and see mom and/or dad/whatever parental figure out there waiting, and you know it’s time to go…time to leave this magical place behind. With games being just 25 cents, or 50 for certain new games, a 5-dollar bill from your mom or dad could last for quite awhile…unless you were terrible like a certain friend I just remembered. Dude would be completely out and begging for more quarters in record time…and it was not a scam…he was just that bad at most games.
----then there was the comic book shops…and the cards, and random other things you could get from such places. A trip to the arcade and the comic book shop, and perhaps a movie… ohhhhh this was a perfect weekend. I still remember seeing things like Ghostbusters, Legend, Terminator 2, the 1989 Batman and House at the theater.
…then you had WWF Saturday Night Main Event back in the day… this would be discussed with fellow wrestling fans later, of course…somewhere in the mix was that late night show with the gorgeous ELVIRA, Mistress of the Dark…goddamn that woman probably was the direct inspiration of at least a few wet dreams for me back then…that body was ridiculous… (*note-- yes, I’ve seen her recently, and yes… I would STILL pounce on that immediately.) In later years, USA network had a similar thing going on with Rhonda Schear hosting “USA UP All Night”.
…so you go on to tolerate being at church, try not to laugh at the old people “catchin’ the Holy Ghost” and making funny outbursts… have a nice dinner, then another week of fun things starts again.