70s-child: Run Yourself Ragged by Tomy

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Run Yourself Ragged by Tomy

I was given this game Christmas of '79. I could complete the maze in less than 60 seconds. Cousins of mine who were a few years older than me couldn't do it, and was amazed at how fast I was at it. Younger kids are definitely swifter at accomplishing things than older kids, I don't know why. Although I wore this game out, for years I couldn't remember the name of it. Just today I came across one on eBay. I finally did an ebay search entering: Maze game with a steel ball (or something like that). I wonder if I got this game again, could I do it??? I guess I'll never know. Just knowing that I could do it back then is good enough for me (and that my cousins couldn't. Losers).

Don't expect much out of me for a quarter:

As a kid, I never got an allowance. That's something my folks weren't into. They were very generous with me, I never lacked anything, and usually when I asked for something they'd get it for me, but an allowance just wasn't going to happen. In '76, just before my folks split up, dad decided to give me a "job". It was sometime in January and the weather was pretty brutal, so he told me he'd pay me a quarter if I'd open the garage door for him when he got home so he wouldn't have to get out of the car and open it himself. We lived in a split level house (a raised-ranch), and the garage was in the lower level. The very first night, I was watching TV and I heard him pull in and stop at the garage door. I didn't want to leave my show, and it was pretty cold down there in the garage, and I was rather warm and cozy and comfortable sitting in front of the tv, so I basically ignored him. He honked. He honked again. And again. And again. Finally I heard him open the car door, open the garage himself, pull into the garage and slam the door shut. The way he slammed the door, I could tell he was angry and that I was in trouble. He came upstairs and just looked at me. Let's just say I lost my job that night, which didn't really bother me. A QUARTER??? I didn't get out of BED for that kind of money...