Last week, my wife went out of town on business for two days. I was supposed to pick her up Wednesday night at the airport at 8:30pm. I don't know when the last time you picked anyone up at an airport, but it's become an unbelievable hassle. At the OKC airport, you can't stop, you can't park, and you can't wait. All you can do is drive the five minute loop over and over, hoping your passenger is waiting outside. If you want to meet someone inside, you'll have to park ten minutes away, walk to the airport, meet the person, and walk back -- something I didn't want to do, since I had my 2 year old son with me.
My kid was being a but unwieldy so I had to get out of the house. I knew we couldn't wait at the airport, so we hopped in the car and started driving without a real destination.
A few miles past my house we drove past Cactus Jacks (the arcade I talked about here: http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24105). I decided this was a good way to kill an hour or so with my kid, so we pulled in.
I've read all these posts about the demise of the arcade ... well let me tell you, I can't imagine this one being around much longer. Despite having probably 150 machines plus pool tables and redemption machines, there were a total of five cars in the parking lot. There was a father and son there playing pool, and a boyfriend/girlfriend making out and playing Tetris. The other three cars appeared to belong to employees.
Every now and then a kid would come and go. One kid came in and played DDR for a bit. The same kid played a drumming game for a while. Basically, Mason and I had run of the place. We played Foosball for a while (he sat on a barstool and kept trying to grab the ball) and some other games. Later we played pinball. There was no one around us or near us at any time. This was at roughly 7pm on a Wednesday night.
Cactus Jacks was a staple of my childhood, but I can't imagine it being around much longer. Kind of makes me sad that I won't be able to share that place with my son once he gets older.