We Remember Them Well

9 June 2022

By Royal Flushes

CINDY: Let’s lay it on the line, shall we? We are not huge slot players but we do play the machines and we have played them for several decades. Which machines, or time periods I guess, are the ones you enjoyed the most?

ABBY: Oh, that’s easy for me. Maybe it’s my age or something but I much preferred the machines of the late 1980s and through the 1990s. I guess you could call these traditional machines. You know, three symbols, just one decision a spin; not too much in the way of fancy games. What I would call game games. You know sleek but also approachable, if that makes any sense.

CINDY: I know, machines that actually took coins. The playing felt real to me whereas some of the machines, actually many of the machines, today seem almost soulless. Could that be a word in slot play?

ABBY: Why not? And the sound of those coins going into the machine and, even better, coming out of the machines. Wow! It was a thrill to hear the slot machines when you entered the casino even if you were heading for a table game. The atmosphere was so much more, I don’t know, conducive to gambling.

CINDY: I can see the players walking around with their buckets of coins. If you had a full bucket and a smile on your face, you couldn’t beat that. It was a treasure. People with buckets of coins had their treasure. A credit slip just doesn’t really do it for me.

ABBY: The recorded sounds of coins going into machines just doesn’t do it for me.

CINDY: Neither for me. I liked the real coins. The sound of the real coins couldn’t be matched.

ABBY: And your hands got all dirty with the coin scrapings that came off them. Your hands could turn silver! Good casinos would have some workers who gave you wet towels to clean your hands of the grime.

CINDY: It was like the mean streets. Getting your hands dirty. You knew you were playing. Buckets and grime. Those were the days.

ABBY: Your clothes could take a beating if you accidentally wiped your hands on yourself or if your hands just skimmed along your clothes. Talk about the dirty streets!

CINDY: I think what we are talking about is the real versus the unreal. Today’s slots lean more towards the unreal. They seem more geared towards kids as opposed to adult players. Unless that is also an example of my age. You know, things were better in the past. I don’t know. I do feel this way about the machines.

ABBY: I do too. I mean I do enjoy when I play them but the inner thrill is not there for me as it used to be. I don’t think that the whole thing we feel is just our ages, although I do think that might be so. I’ve said that already but actually it doesn’t matter.

CINDY: Maybe casinos should have an “old age” room where we can play as if it were the past. What do you think of that?

ABBY: No. I don’t put us in the old-age category. Do you?

CINDY: Nope.