The first arcade on the left

There was only one block between Uncle Harry's and the Boardwalk. Just as you got up a ramp to the boardwalk was a side door to kid heaven. It was an old arcade. It was immediately apparent that little had changed since the late 1930's or early 1940's. Just inside the door were about 5 or 6 Skee Ball machines. The old ones. With the 10 foot ramp. I couldn't find an exact picture, but they looked something like this:

There were another series of them just to the right of the main entrance.  I hardly saw them. Just to the left was a Grandma machine, and I always headed right for it. Put in your coin and grandma would start moving. Her hand would drift over a line of cards. She would look from left to right until that magic moment when she selected a card and sent it down a chute to you. The card was printed with your fortune.

 

 At this arcade, they had the gypsy grandma. She looked more like this:

Just across from grandma was a row of kinetoscope machines (which used a celluloid loop) and the kind with flipping cards - I can't remember what they were called! Grrrr.

Just around the corner were a couple of fan photo type machines. You'd put in your coin and a card with a picture postcard of a movie star would emerge. I still have a couple.

Of course all that is gone now. The entertainment technology of a simpler age.

I've been having problems with blogger this evening. I know it's only Mercury Retrograde at work, but well, you know. Later.