Broken Swings & Pinball Machines

When my parents ran the motel the summer of 1977, my brother and I had to find our own things to do. We'd look for snakes in the field (and scream and run away if we saw one), play pinball (we had a pinball machine in the lobby), beg the pop machine guy for a free grape or orange pop (I still think of that motel when I have one) and played on our swingset in the backyard.

Every day we ran out there, we'd fight over who got the "good" swing. There were once two good swings, but one snapped in half while we were fighting over it. I usually won since I was bigger. While swinging, I'd sing songs like, (you've got the cutest little) Baby Face, and the K-I-S-S-I-N-G song.

We also fought over the pinball machine in the lobby. I usually won that battle too, since I was taller. One time while my brother and I were in bed (we shared a room because I was scared of our dog), my dad talked my mom into playing pinball. We could hear her out front playing and laughing when suddenly, a frog hopped into our bedroom.

My terrified four year old brother jumped up onto his bed and started screaming, "A snake! There's a snake in my room!" I thought it was funny, but I went and got my dad who caught the frog and set it free.