Work Ethic, Opportunity & Destiny?
by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com
Happy August, the month when Europe is “closed” because everyone is on holiday. August is also the beginning of the end of the Dog Days of Summer.
Back when I operated amusement centers, the slowest “month” of the year was the last two weeks of August and the first two weeks of September. Between older kids going off to college and the younger ones getting ready for school to start, parents are spending money on clothes, school supplies, books, dorm rooms, tuition and much more. It’s a busy and expensive time of year for families.
It’s also a time when people are trying to squeeze in every last little bit of summer fun they can. I remember when I worked at the Brook Sun and Swim Club in Brooklyn, by the second week in August, about 25% of the staff would quit. They wanted to have the last two weeks off to enjoy whatever summer was left.
Their departure gave those of us who stayed a chance to work some overtime. I think I was pulling in $1.60 an hour, so to get time-and-a-half was a big deal. Around 1978, “The Brook” became my first location to place games. If I had quit early like the others, I wouldn’t have had the good relationship I did with one of the owners, Joe, who asked me if I’d put the games in the club.
My first game was a Bally Wizard! that I bought for $1,800. That pinball filled up with money. I can still see everything so clearly. A few years later, in April, I stopped by The Brook because they were getting ready to open on Memorial Day. I was going to be married that August and learned that Joe’s older sister passed away a few months earlier, and he was selling her house to his nephew. I asked if I could see the house and Joe reluctantly said yes. “But Jackie,” he told me, “the house is sold.”
The nephew was supposed to meet Joe at the house at 7 that night; my future bride, Joanne, her mom and I went to take a look at 6. It was a real handyman special! Joe and his wife, Mary, were there, and after a quick look, I asked Joanne if she liked it. Before she could even answer, I blurted out, “Joe, we love it! We’ll take it!” Joe emphatically reminded me that he’d already agreed to sell it to his nephew, but there was Mary, tapping him on the arm. “Your nephew was supposed to be here two weeks ago already!” she said.
Where am I going with this? Everything is related. If I had quit my job early like a lot of the other employees, there wouldn’t be that relationship, that first location, nor that first home. I’m sure something else would have worked out – and yes, differently – but I came away feeling like this was all destined to be.
Now let’s go full circle to what’s happening in my company.
Years ago, I remember opening new Sega pinball machine cartons, and regardless of the themed, licensed games inside, the boxes all had a line drawing of Sonic the Hedgehog on the outside. (I love Sonic – who doesn’t?) The funny thing was that Sega never applied their own IP to build a Sonic pinball, an idea that was staring them in the face! I like to think the reason they didn’t is that a Sonic the Hedgehog pinball machine was destined to be made by me and the people who work at and support Jersey Jack Pinball. Sometimes, I feel like I have a knack for seeing the unseen. Does that ever happen to you?
Enjoy the rest of the summer – or work or both – and seize your destiny.
Jack Guarnieri started servicing electro-mechanical pinball machines in 1975 and has been involved in every phase of the amusement game business since then. He was an operator in NYC, then began a distributorship in 1999, PinballSales.com, selling coin-op to the consumer market. In January of 2011, he founded Jersey Jack Pinball (named after his RePlay Magazine pen name), which builds award-winning, full-featured, coin-op pinball machines. Email Jack at [email protected].