"Well, he ain't got no distractions, can't hear no buzzers and bells. Don't see lights-a-flashin', he plays by a sense of smell. Always has a replay, 'n never tilts at all." The Who from "Pinball Wizard"
One word can bring a Noah's Ark like flood of memories. The nurse mentioned that she spend her Sunday laying on the deck of her latest sugar daddy's boat. Poor sap probably has no idea that at her demon core she is nothing but a succubus. I would warn him but with the package that she presents, it wouldn't matter. So hot, so evil. I want so badly to hate her but the drugs she brings me make everything so tolerable. I decided to put up with her for a bit longer, as I drifted off thinking about the strangest thing, pinball.
When I was twenty-three a pinball machine by the name of Fun House changed my life. Sounds as ridiculous as hearing the words "And the Oscar for Best Actor goes to William Shatner", but I'm telling you it's the truth. See, at the time I was fresh off the dissolution of my relationship with Michelle, working at a mattress store, and drinking like Jim Beam was about to close up shop. There was a bar, there's always a bar, that I hung out at, Norm didn't go to Cheers as much as I was at Lucky John's and they had a Fun House pinball machine that I could play for hours on a pair of quarters. These marathon sessions were widely ignored by the bar populace with the exception of Dave. He also enjoyed the flipper fever and since his wife Julie was a cocktail waitress there, he too spend uncountable hours within the smoke filled walls.
One night Dave got the the machine before me, so I was resigned to drinking and watching. While he played Dave informed me that he would soon be relinquishing control of the tilt box to me for good. He and the Mrs. were moving. I liked Dave and Julie so I was disappointed to hear this. So we drank. We drank like it was free, like it was our first day out of jail and our last day of freedom all wrapped into one. As the night turned into morning I heard Dave say "You should come to Minnesota with us." Somehow I think he expected me to decline the invitation, but a trip to the land of 10,000 lakes sounded like the perfect remedy for what was ailing me.
I had a couple of grand saved up, sold my car, quit my job, and 72 hours after hearing about Minnesota for the first time, I was aware it was a state and that it snowed, nothing else, I was on a plane headed to Fargo, North Dakota. That being the nearest airport to what was going to end up being a place that I still to this very day consider to be Paradise on Earth. The town of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.
Dave and Julie picked me up at the airport, they had arrived a day earlier, to find my luggage didn't feel the need to accompany me all the way to Fargo, as it only went to Denver, then it decided to stay. So with a carry on bag full of three changes of clothes I left the airport and got my first hit of Mid Western air. It was clean, non-toxic, brisk, my lungs rejected it instantly. I would, as it turned out, build up a tolerance for it. We drove the 50 miles to Detroit Lakes, through fields of corn, a site that a Los Angelino had never seen, fields of corn, barns, lakes, no I was a city boy. We arrived in town, went through both stop lights, down two lane highway 22 until we arrived at their cabin on the shore of Lake Sally. And right next door was the Hotel Shoreham.
Ever take a trip like that, on a whim? Ever escape a bad break up by changing latitude?
Tomorrow: People are Strange Part 2 of 4
Dixie Cup of Love: Dave and Julie.
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