I met my daughter and grandgirls at Woodbank Garden Centre, where they have a Penny Arcade Museum, full of old slot machines and games such as you traditionally find on a seaside pier or at a funfair. You can exchange pound coins for a handful of old copper pennies and try your hand at various attractions. They seem to have extended the place. I'm sure there were many more machines than last time we went. It is very popular with families and quite a lot of fun. I wasn't terribly successful this time, though I did score a tube of Love Heart sweets, and several more pennies on the coin pusher machine.
Fortune-telling machines spit out a short write-up predicting what will happen to you in the coming weeks. Thankfully my daughter's card turned out to be very positive!
Concentration was necessary to hook a duck... not successful this time!
Some of the machines are really rather attractive - colourful and retro.
There are all sort of animated scenes and larger models too. All a lot of fun.
Then, of course, we had to go visit Elvis the parrot and some of the other birds and animals in the centre. I suppose my girls will one day soon feel this is all 'beneath them' as they are becoming cool teenagers - but for now I'm happy to enjoy their enjoyment.
And just yesterday I read the American pennies are now to be discontinued...awaiting final legal approval. Prices will be rounded up or down accordingly to nearest nickels. They apparently cost over 4 cents to make each one, a losing enterprise in our money-mad world. Guinea pigs! Or gerbils? I am not sure. What a lot of fun machines to play with!
ReplyDeleteA fun day!
ReplyDeleteOh, my! How my granddaughter would love this!
ReplyDeleteYour granddaughters have grown up and very pretty. I'm lad they enjoyed the old fashioned machines.
ReplyDeleteSome of those slot machines look familiar - I'm old enough to remember some of them from my childhood, too (although in Germany, we had some slightly different ones).
ReplyDeleteMoving models such as the fortune teller or the Frankenstein's monster really scared me as a kid. I was convinced they'd come alive as soon as my back was turned.