Great Pinball Weekend (a bit long)

[Ron Donohue]

Well, I think that I had one of my best pinball weekends ever. I was
in San Francisco Wednesday through Saturday at a conference and got a
chance to meet some long distance friends after communicating via the
Internet for years.

I sent Cliffy an email about playing pinball in San Francisco and he
immediately replied, inviting me to visit him at his home. I freed up
from the conference on Friday afternoon and jumped on the BART. Cliffy
picked me up at the BART station in his Ranchero (i.e., his
pinhauler) It was very nice to finally meet him after years of
chatting, emailing and so forth.

Cliffy and his family are wonderful and friendly people with a real
generosity of spirit. I felt like we had been friends for many years
after having been there for about half an hour. A little later, Steve
Charland arrived. Again, I had had some contact with Steve in the
past, but within ten minutes, it was like we had known each other for
years. For those who have not met him in person, Steve is a really
nice guy with some great pinball stories. Meeting nice people is one
of my favorite things in the hobby, and I do not believe I have ever
met nicer folks associated with pinball.

As one would expect, Cliffy has a very nice, eclectic connection. I
got to play several games I had never played before, including Paul
Bunyan (Sorry Cliffy, but I do see the resemblance) , Blue Ribbon,
Pinball Champ, Pinball Magic and Doctor Dude. The games were all in
beautiful shape until Steve and I broke a few ;). It was a superb
time, even though I did not play all that well. I did get to see
Steve's initials on many of the games, with scores I am not likely to
see any time soon. When it was time to leave, he was kind enough to
give me a ride to a BART station near his home. All in all, one of
the most enjoyable evenings I have had in a long time. It takes a
special person to invite a virtual stranger into their home and treat
them like a member of the family, and Cliffy is a special person.
This is probably not a surprise to folks here.

I got back home from San Francisco about 2:00 on Sunday morning and
dragged my butt out of bed to take my Father in Law bowling at 9:00
am. A regular bowler walked up to me on arrival and told me that he
heard I "was into pinball." I admitted that I was, and he told me
that his father had a non-working game he wanted out of his garage as
soon as possible. I guess my incessantly talking about pinball to
everyone I meet finally paid off. I went and got the game, which was
a Gottlieb Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was not working
(battery damage to board) , the cabinet is delaminating and the coin
door is trashed, but it is complete , the playfield is okay and the
backglassi s nice. It is also the first time I can ever remember
getting a game for free, no strings attached.

So, what looked like a boring weekend at a conference turned out to be
a pretty good pniball weekend. I know that it may be a bit off track,
but I thought some for the folks here would not mind hearing about a
good pinball experience. It is a nice contrast to some of the
negativity. After all, pinball is a game, and should give joy, not
grief. So, my general impression that most pinball folks are really
nice people was reaffirmed. Again, many thanks to Cliffy and his
family.

Ron

[jesse...@comcast.net]

Great story, thanks for sharing it!

Jesse

[Del]

Lucky You Ron !,
I have Met Alot of people from RGP & theres 20 more I'd like to meet,
Cliffy & Steve are up there on the List & I envy you !, I have yet to
meet anyone from RGP that I didn't enjoy meeting.
Nice Story, Thanks for sharing !

Pin-Del,
CARGPB28

[Cliffy]

The pleasure was all ours, Ron! Fortunately Steve and I both are very
close to BART stations. Hope ya liked the ride in the lil' 'Chero! I
would have sent the limo but, well, with gas prices the way they are :)

It was a fun night of pinball for sure. It was also a good test of my
games before we have a really BIG party :) I was pretty fast at fixing
the stuff as it broke, thank God. Steve won't tolerate a broken game
very long. Happily my soldering pencil heats up fast (stupid Capcom
optos) :)

I would like to thank Steve for coming over too. The more the merrier, I
say. I had called a few other local pinheads but I realize it was pretty
short notice. I would also suggest that if Ron is in your neighborhood
that you invite him in. An awesome guest, pretty good player and as
friendly as they come. You're welcome anytime here, Ron. Next time maybe
bring the wife and that cute new baby of yours. Oh and congrats on the
freebie pin! CE is a darned fun game. Hope you get 'er working soon!

--
Cliffy - CARGPB2
A passion for pinball!
http://www.passionforpinball.com

[mikeo]

Ron,

I'm glad you had the opportunity to experience some of the same
hospitality you provided me at your house a couple of years ago when I
was travelling in your neck of the woods and looked you up. This is
something I try to do when I can when I am travelling for business.
It breaks up the monotony of travelling but really provides an
opportunity to share this great obsession with other collectors.

I know this is late in coming but thank you for the hospitality you
showed me during my visit to your home.

Mike O.

P.S. - And for those RGP'ers that find themselves in the Kansas City
area, feel free to contact me and we'll see about giving you a tour.

[bdie...@aracamerch.com]

I think others have said it before, but this is one of the things that
make this hobby truly great- the wonderful people you meet along the
way! Thanks for sharing- great story :)

[Ron Donohue]

Mike:

I am pretty sure you thanked me when you visited, so I can not see
that you have been derelict in any way. But, I very much appreciate
the thought. It is always good to have another Wolverine in the
house, and I enjoyed your visit. If Mike is coming to your town, I
recommend you invite him over. He is a real nice guy who loves to
talk pinball and a very cordial guest.

I just wish my collection had been in a little better shape when you
visited. Now that the road has been paved, the dust is not nearly as
bad and I have been able to work on the games a bit-. But, my new
pinball building (1,000 sq.ft.) is just about done, as they were
painting today. On completion, it will give me a controlled space for
my games and I will be able to start working to get all of the games
in good shape. So, hopefully you will make it back again some time
and we will get to play and shoot the breeze again.

Ron

[Steve Charland]

I'm always ready to play pinball with friends, I had a lot of fun.
Sorry about the games we broke, I've never met anyone that could break
them as fast as I could until now. ;) -S (CARGPB1)

Cliffy wrote:
>
> The pleasure was all ours, Ron! Fortunately Steve and I both are very
> close to BART stations. Hope ya liked the ride in the lil' 'Chero! I
> would have sent the limo but, well, with gas prices the way they are :)
>
> It was a fun night of pinball for sure. It was also a good test of my
> games before we have a really BIG party :) I was pretty fast at fixing
> the stuff as it broke, thank God. Steve won't tolerate a broken game
> very long. Happily my soldering pencil heats up fast (stupid Capcom
> optos) :)
>
> I would like to thank Steve for coming over too. The more the merrier, I
> say. I had called a few other local pinheads but I realize it was pretty
> short notice. I would also suggest that if Ron is in your neighborhood
> that you invite him in. An awesome guest, pretty good player and as
> friendly as they come. You're welcome anytime here, Ron. Next time maybe
> bring the wife and that cute new baby of yours. Oh and congrats on the
> freebie pin! CE is a darned fun game. Hope you get 'er working soon!
>