Hello everyone,

I thought that I would write about when I got my first job. My first job was about 43 years or so ago, so I will try to do my best to remember.

I am thinking that it was around 1979 when I started my first job. It was about 1978 when my dad did some work for a family in town that owned a company called Sande Music Co. They were into amusement games, jukeboxes, pool tables, shuffle boards, pinball machines, shuffle bowlers, wall box games, and video games. My dad built a new store for them in 1978 called the Pied Piper, it was an arcade and a shirt shop, transfers, and lettering on t-shirts. Eventually, they got into embroidery on coats and hats. I remember my dad asking if they had any work a kid could do, Phil said to send him out. I showed up the next day and I have had a job ever since.

I started out doing odd jobs like cutting grass, yard work, and cleaning the shop. If I remember right, I started working for $2.35 an hour. I eventually started to do more work in the shop. I remember a new pinball machine coming in. I watched Phil and Dean put it together. They were standing there for about 5 minutes holding a plug in their hands. I saw where I thought it should go but I was pretty shy, so eventually I said how about there and pointed to an empty set of pins. They plugged it in, and it worked! It was a Williams-brand pinball called Gorgar. It was new in 1979.

The next day, another new pinball came in and I asked if I could put it together by myself, Phil looked at me and said okay and left the shop for about an hour. When he got back, I had been playing the game for about 30 minutes. It was a Williams Firepower Pinball. I remember Phil asking me how I was able to put the pinball together. I told him that I watched him the day before. I have always been pretty mechanically inclined. If I see something done, I can usually figure it out. I had hardly seen a pinball machine before this, much less played one. Ever since then, the Firepower pinball has been one of my favorite pinball games to play. I remember Phil telling me that after I put the pinball together by myself that he knew that I was going to be a good employee.

I worked with Phil until they sold out to Badlands Music Inc. in 2010. I am still working for Badlands Music to this day.