arcade 31 July 2010
Thinking of the seaside has made me realise that I may have led Miss Sally Carman onto a rocky road. I introduced her to the delights of the Penny Falls in the amusement arcade on our day out – and those delights are MANY and corrupting…Basically you put twopence pieces into a chute and they land in the machine and are pushed forward, some falling onto a lower level which is always STACKED with riches just waiting for your tuppence to nudge it to freedom and your pocket. I could play it all afternoon, had I endless supplies of tuppenny pieces, and that’s what you need when you fall into the clutches of this siren game. As it was, we conducted an experiment and waited till our pound was gone then counted what we’d liberated from the devil machine – I’d got 36p and Sal a whopping 42p…then we put it all back in, got less back, reinvested it and on and on till we lost it all. And started rooting about in purses for more money. We also (LIKE FOOLS) tried the 10p version and there is no quicker way of losing money. To be honest I liked the tuppenny one better anyhow…I’m hooked. I think she is too. It was a dark and troubling incident.
