About twenty years ago we purchased a pinball machine for $150. It had lots of use as our kids grew up and whenever we had a party at our place, but like a swimming pool, it fell into disuse. Recently it has been stored in a storeroom here and I noticed it getting rusty and even the coins in the tray below the coin slot were getting tarnished. Some of the functions no longer worked. So, out with the yellow pages to find a man to service it. Eventually I found a chap who came to the house and did an initial service and got the machine working properly again, He returned a fortnight later with a new rubber kit (there are about twenty rubber bouncers), feet for the legs and bulbs for all the lights. All this for $270! I asked him how many people still know how to fix these electro-mechanical machines still. He says there are three in W.A., another bloke his age and an old bloke almost 60! I informed him that I was 67. He seemed suitably embarrased.
The pinball is now working beautifully and all I have to do is match the gaudy paint and touch up all the scratches on the case. They truly are a marvel inside the works and very sturdy to have survived the harsh treatment given them by the hundreds of pinball wizards over many years. It will migrate into the house when I can talk Joan into it.
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