October 1983.
My mom asked me what I wanted to do for my 13th birthday, and I couldn’t think of any place better to go than the urban wonderland that was Fox Hills Mall. It was perfect—we could have lunch at Round Table Pizza, then I could waste the entire afternoon on arcade games at the super-mega Sega Center on the second floor.
She agreed, and said I could invite some friends. Cool! So I carefully handpicked from my peers at Orville Wright Junior High…kids whom I thought were cool and would definitely dig video games like I did. The choices were easy:
- Dave: He was my best friend after all, so that was a no-brainer.
- Ernest: The quiet, smart nerdy kid who spent all his time studying…he needed a break!
- Doug: The ultimate Star Wars collector (he had every single action figure, vehicle and playset…in pristine condition—and still does)—he’s in!
- Brandon: The perfect G.I. Joe playmate who liked to build model airplanes (and set them on fire); I liked to spend the night at his house and stay up ‘til 3AM playing Defender on his Atari 5200…and we both thought Men At Work ruled!
- Aaron: In elementary school we both listened to The Mighty 690 religiously and always waited for Charlie Daniels to say “son of a bitch” in the Devil Went Down to Georgia song. I could’ve sworn it happened once.
- Lionel: The all-around mellow man who still sported his ‘70s coke-bottle glasses; his mom packed him killer Italian sausage sandwiches for lunch, which she wrapped ever so delicately in crisp wax paper…and he often shared them with me.
- Russell: The mild-mannered ace athlete whom I’d known since the 4th grade, whose fatal slicies in handball left us all in the dust.
Oh, and that’s my brother in the foreground, who was looking just as forward to the festivities as everyone else was.
Picture-wise, I guess you can’t expect much from a birthday party at a pizza parlor. I mean, ok, here’s a picture of my friends eating pizza, each face contorted in various modes of food consumption. Yay. Some fashion notes, though—those short-shorts that Lionel (bottom left in blue shirt) and Doug (bottom right in red) were none other than Op (Ocean Pacific) shorts, which were all the rage back then. I mean, you simply could not be without ‘em if you wanted to be cool. See? My friends were cool.
Then here’s the other half of my friends also porking out on pizza (that’s me on bottom right). Aaron (bottom left) is also sporting a mainstay of mainstream surfer fashion—an Op shirt (with Op shorts most likely to match). Meanwhile, my brother and I are wearing these 3-banded velour shirts that my grandma made for my birthday. She was a good seamstress.
Finally after all the food, I got to open my presents. If you look closely you’ll see the F-14 Tomcat model kit right under the gift which I’m opening. I was a total model airplane geek. I’m not sure now if my friends already knew that back then, or if I asked them to get me models. I think it was the latter. What a nerd.
Ugh. It’s too bad that I don’t have any pictures of the old Sega Center. That was definitely the best part of my birthday party. I still remember my mom pouring a heap of quarters in my hand (I think 5-7 dollars worth) and letting me loose with my friends (whom she also supplied with quarters) into the electronic wonderland. I remember knowing exactly how much I was going to spend on each of my favorite games. At the time I dug Xevious most of all, followed by Time Pilot, Front Line and Asteroids. I also loved Defender but the button/control setup was just too awkward for a lefty like me.
And there I am, home after all the festivities. This shot totally reveals my glue-gone geekness. Lookit that. I’m holding a F-16 Falcon kit, which sits upon a Vought F4-U Corsair kit, and on the bottom right you’ll see an A-10 tank Buster and the same F-14 Tomcat from the previous picure. I can’t really make out the blue box on the left side of the table, but it looks like a Ford Mustang Cobra (1/24 scale)?. I was so into model airplanes back then, I don’t think I even opened that one. Isn’t that crazy?

















