What a great weekend I had and I have to say it’s all due to being nice to children. Now you’re like, well Steve, you’re supposed to be nice to children. Of course, but I was nice to them in a special ways because I’ve never forgotten what it was like to be in their situations, namely being broke and semi-powerless.
It kicked off like most Saturdays this time of year by running into Girl Scouts for it is cookie season. There were a couple with their mother camped out in front of a donut shop, very original. Most days I find them at Walgreens, pizza places and comic book stores. Somara wanted to pick up some treats for her co-workers, otherwise I’m indifferent to Shipley’s (and I can’t get into Krispy Kreme). I bought a box as I always do to help, to me the GSA is a good organization while the BSA still needs to join the modern era. I gave the younger Girl Scout a couple Plucker’s cards for free wings I got from the previous night’s Stars game. This resulted in a sweet, thank-you hug. It was darling and made me feel upbeat. I also credit the kind act with why I found a rare Toto card at Pinballz.
Quick aside. Pinballz has this push game with a Wizard of Oz theme. You put in your money, you drop tokens to push out colored chips and cards for points to redeem at the prize counter. Green chips and silver coins are worth five. Red chips are worth 20. Cards are worth 50. If you get all seven character cards (Glenda, Scarecrow, Tinman, Lion, Dorothy, Evanora and Toto), the set is worth 5000. The catch is that Toto is only dispensed once every 50 cards by the machine, thus making it rare. You can find these Toto cards on Craigslist for $30, they’re quite a big deal. I racked up enough points in 2017 to land a PS4 but most days I redeem them for Lego sets.
Back to the karma thing…
I returned to Pinballz on Sunday to have a catch-up lunch with my lunch with an old friend and ex-coworker Tony. While killing time, I saw a couple kids with big ambitions at the prize counter. I gave them each a Wizard of Oz character card after asking them if they’re good kids (parents nodded yes) and told them to listen to their parents, they’re pretty smart. Boom! Another Toto card spotted and in my token cup after the meal.
Even without the Toto cards, I did feel like I was on an emotional roll. Another practice I will never stop doing is handing out four Pinballz tokens to the birthday kids whenever I’m around on the weekends. My point? Well, as much as I want to help drive up business at my favorite drinking-go karting-pinball playing hangout, I also want to let children know there are adults who are nice, generous and kinds. We’re not all stern and down to business, at their age it’s do your homework, do as we say not as we do.