Give Me a Break
For one and a half summers, I was what they called a breaker at Idora Park.
There were two people who had that job. One was always Pat Duffy the Third, until later when he became manager of the games, and one other person. At this time it was me.
It was really a great job. You got to meet the people who also worked on the games. You might have to fill in at people called off. And you had to give people their breaks.
Part of the job is also filling up the games with prizes, especially stuffed animals. They had a building that was full of prizes. I used to love to go in that building because I still love stuffed animals at that time and I like picking out which ones would go where.
Pat would say, “Don't be so picky. Just pick out some and put them where they belong.”
In fact one day while we are working, I found this alligator that I thought was cute. But the poor little alligator was missing one eye. So Pat Duffy the Third said to throw it away. But I asked if I could keep it. He said, “Sure, go ahead.” And I still have it to this day.
And there were boxes of little toys that people could win in the claw machines or the drag machines inside the penny arcades. In fact I have a little plastic gun that I won out of one of those machines.
It had an arm that slid the prize up a slight hill and down to a hole. In the hole was where you could grab the prize you won. And if you'd like to see a game like this or this one exactly you can go to the Idora Park Experience when it opens again next year and see it. In fact there is probably a picture of the game on their website. The game is located in their Penny Arcade they built.
The nice thing about this job is you got to do different jobs and meet a lot of people. Of course in past stories I've told you about Jimmy Wellington who worked at the Penny Arcade. He was one of the people I gave breaks to.
Also one of the people I remember very well – her name was Liz. She worked at the game where you had to throw a hoop over a square block. It wasn't that easy but as I gave her more breaks, I could actually do it.
This had to be in about 1970, I would say in case she's reading this (Hi, Liz!). She was a very pretty blonde with blue eyes and stood about 5 foot 9, maybe 5 foot 10. It seemed like everyone that worked there kept on trying to get a date from her, including my brother. But then again, he was only five foot six so it didn't happen.
The thing I remembered most about her is how kind and nice she was.
Okay, there might be one more thing that I really remember about her.
She had a 1963 Ford Thunderbird, the one with the big lights on the back end. It was a medium shade of metallic blue. This car was so beautiful and it was mint. I think, just about every day I came to work through the parking lot because I just had to look at that car. I know a lot of guys will say, what car would you want if there was a car you could get? I would definitely say this would be my number one car.
I got to give all the games in the lower half of the Midway their brakes. That would be the .22 rifle target game, Skee-Ball, punk rack, water gun race, dart game, ball in the basket, hoop over the block and more.
It's kind of funny how things change in life. I went to Conneaut Lake Park last weekend and most of the people had walkie talkies.
When I worked at Idora Park they would page us overhead when they needed us. And on slow days if someone wanted to go home I would take their place, and Pat the Third would give everyone their breaks.
Now there was some times we didn't have to give breaks to some places because usually had two people, like the punk rack and Skee-Ball. At the end of the day the game manager – who at this time was George Goodman – would collect the money out of the cash register drawer and Pat Duffy the Third and I would help the different games close down. And then come back the next day and start all over again.
And it never got old.
See you on the Midway!