Heidi wanted to go shopping at a nearby outlet mall, and since today was a holiday from school, we headed south. It had been a minute since we last visited this particular shopping center, and although most things were the same, there were a few additions and subtractions. Perhaps the biggest new thing was an establishment offering bowling and other entertainment.
"What 'other entertainment' do you think they have?" Heidi wondered, so when she was busy in a store I don't care for, I volunteered to check the place out. Plus? Bowling!
I was met with loud, clamorous noise and bright strobing lights the second I crossed the threshold. It was an arcade on steroids, occupying at least two full storefronts and running from the main walkway to the outside wall. There were enormous versions of every game imaginable: basketball, skeeball, football, baseball, dance challenges, and wallsized screens of classics like Centipede and Space Invaders. They had two dozen claw machines, Pachinko, Wheel of Fortune, and The Price is Right. They even had Pong, the original table video game. And, of course, bowling, with ten full-sized lanes featuring giant video screens and balls striped like basketballs.
And yet, rather than be overwhelmed by the sensory flash and bang of it all, I found myself strangely energized. I even considered buying a token card and staying to play a while, exactly the opposite reaction I would have predicted for myself.
Later, I wondered if it was like the effects of a weighted blanket for anxiety, or a stimulant for ADHD. Whatever the cause of my response, the place knew what they were doing. It was packed with customers, and not just kids.
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