If you look at the bottom/left of this page, you’ll see some tiny type which spells out the issue’s date and subscription prices. The Post Office requires this from all periodicals, even though few read it. But if you notice where it says “Volume LI, No. 1,” which means it’s the first issue of RePlay’s 51st year in business, you’ll see where I’m going with this.
There is pride seeing my magazine reach its 50th birthday, of course. But it’s more a sense of satisfaction that something I created and nursed all these many years has been accepted by the industry it serves. And make no mistake. This is a product just like a screwdriver or Allen wrench that fills a need … this being useful information which can influence a reader’s decision to do one thing or another.
I will never have the chance to write one of these historic editorials again, so I’d better make this good. As a veteran writer (which among all the jobs I’ve tried in my life is the one that best describes my occupation), I want to avoid clichés like thanking this person or that person or saying the business we cover is the greatest thing that ever happened since the first time the sun came out.
Truthfully, though, the coin machine business (now collectively called “coin-op”) has been good to me. Ever since I played a Chicago Coin hockey game at the arcade/casino in Rye Beach, N.Y., as a youngster, I’ve loved games. I loved the smell of that old wooden cabinet and the primitive little guys you swung back and forth to shoot the ball around the playfield.
In my life, I’ve tried making it in a couple of other forms of the entertainment field, never thinking for an instant I may land in this one. My wish now is a simple one, that in the years to come, I’m still of some use to the people now making RePlay every month … just like the old Texas route operator Charlie Pantieri who spent the last years at his company running the change counting machine.
Truly, I’ve met some very nice people in “coin-op” over the years, but none nicer than the people I’ve worked with right here at RePlay. As my friend Dick Hawkins said when his turn at the helm of the AMOA was up, I want to thank everyone…readers and advertisers included… for letting me drive the boat. God bless you all.