Ode to Tron

Before school, after school, half days, weekends; my friends, boyfriend, and I would live at the corner store and hang out in the back smoking cigarettes and playing TRON when ever possible.


We learned the patterns we spent lunch money, birthday money, holiday money, allowances, everything we had on TRON. It was the best game ever because it was 4 in 1 games. It was fast, cool, different, and we thought we were awesome because we could kill all the spiders, we outsmarted the cycles, we cleared the cones of ALL the blocks not just dodging our way in. Tanks, pshh, too easy. It was a nice time in retrospect. I enjoyed it in the moment as well. But being older and looking back on the time spent just hanging out with no place to go or things to do...that was childhood.

We rode our bikes around town just to get there. It was a small sense of independence; a small moment of freedom. I'd get so lost in that deli and my father knew exactly where to find me...unfortunately with a pack of cigarettes sitting on the table...oops! We laugh about it now, I've also since quit and am anti-cigarettes but it was a moment.

Some day when I am setting up for retirement, and I've got my vette rag top in the garage all polished, the boat stored for the season, and the cabin in the woods being renovated, I will acquire this arcade phenomenon and spend countless hours trying to remember how I beat those three cycles and cleared the fast multiplying spiders via round 4. I'll have plenty of time trying to figure it out...unless I'm fighting to get one of the kids or grandkids off of it by then. I may even have Hon addicted. It's been known to happen...eh hem, SNOOD.