So reminded me of all the cold , seaside , half abandoned lonely weekends in March, October & November, when holiday makers were few but caravan owners would be spending Saturdays or Sundays opening and closing their holiday chalets/caravans each side of winter….
They expected the arcade and shop etc to stay open …. So they could bring their kids along and dump them on us to babysit free while they spent just a small amount of pocket money…. They would mainly just bang the pushers to see if a couple of 2ps would fall till they maybe changed them for 10p to play pooltable, space invaders or try win more on a 2p fruity?
We used to divide the arcades by up to 2/3 of floor use turning off the unused half to save electric .. though the heater was on in the kiosk all day so as not to freeze while we watched a 12” black n white portable tv. Only one or two channels on them old indoor aerial too!
A row of machines would be used as a barrier behind them we could work on machines that went out of order in the summer or pull in repairs for other arcades nearby to keep busy… a lonely life in winter!
But even on low voltages we cut electric costs down , more noticeable as we had a 50p slot electric meter back then and sometimes with just half the lights on 50p lasted all day or more if the pushers were off. (240v motors) ..
This…….
They expected the arcade and shop etc to stay open …. So they could bring their kids along and dump them on us to babysit free while they spent just a small amount of pocket money…. They would mainly just bang the pushers to see if a couple of 2ps would fall till they maybe changed them for 10p to play pooltable, space invaders or try win more on a 2p fruity?
We used to divide the arcades by up to 2/3 of floor use turning off the unused half to save electric .. though the heater was on in the kiosk all day so as not to freeze while we watched a 12” black n white portable tv. Only one or two channels on them old indoor aerial too!
A row of machines would be used as a barrier behind them we could work on machines that went out of order in the summer or pull in repairs for other arcades nearby to keep busy… a lonely life in winter!
But even on low voltages we cut electric costs down , more noticeable as we had a 50p slot electric meter back then and sometimes with just half the lights on 50p lasted all day or more if the pushers were off. (240v motors) ..
This…….
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