When John and I were first married, we owned two things: a queen-size bed (we bought the mattress used), and a small round kitchen table with four chairs that someone gave to us after using it for 20 years with their own family. Needless to say, when our home teacher in Wymount Terrace came over for the first time, and noticed that we didn't have anything in our apartment but those two things, he immediately called the bishop and got us store credit at Deseret Industries so we could buy a very small sofa and a matching chair.
We didn't need much really. I put towels over the moving boxes that we had and called those end tables. And we had milk crates too for furniture. However, about six months into marriage, John stumbled upon a garage sale (although nobody in Wymount had a garage, but anyway...) and found a very old, very used TV for $20. The problem was that it was a green and white TV. Yes, GREEN and white. Not black and white, and certainly not color. Green and white. We put it on one of our milk crates, adjusted the antenna so that we could pick up BYU TV, and sat down together for lunch most days to watch Perry Mason, an old detective show. Again, in green and white.
Before we had gotten married, I had house sat (during my homeless months) for a family who owned a Nintendo game system. The original Nintendo. John would come over on Saturdays, and we would sit and play Mario Brothers for hours. I know that prior to this, he had played video games in arcades, and I had spent countless hours playing Space Invaders with Vannette on her Atari when I would go visit my granddad during the summer in Las Vegas (and at that time, Vannette had a constantly lit cigarette sitting by her arm from which she would take a drag in between alien massacres). So we were no stranger to video games (and at this point, I digress again to appreciate that I never had a female role model who struck strictly to gender stereotypes, because believe me, back in the day, women didn't play video games, but that never stopped Vannette...and consequently me).
So almost ten months into marriage, John's 24th birthday was approaching, and I knew that all I wanted to get him was a Nintendo game system. I would like to think that I could have bought one used back then, but there was no eBay or Craigs List, so unless I could find one sold on the street, it was going to need to be a new purchase.
We had stashed $2,000 in a CD (a certificate of deposit) that had an unbelievable rate of 6%! Today's rates rarely go above 2%. It was for a period of six months, because in al honesty, we weren't sure if we would need the money or not, and if we withdrew it early, there were severe consequences. So the money was just sitting in the bank at this point.
It just about killed me, but I withdrew $200 to buy an Original Nintendo game system for $199.00. It's crazy to think that game systems now aren't that much more than they were 30 years ago. I wrapped it up and gave it to him.
And it's crazy to remember now, but we would sit in front of that green TV, playing a few different Nintendo games that we managed to buy. Bubble Bobble was one of the first because John's family loved playing that game. Link also was a big one. And Final Fantasy. We played Castlevania together along with any Konami game.
The best and brightest of all however? Contra.
Two Arnold Swarzenegger-type men, bare chested, and wielding machine guns, moving from left to right, or up and down on the screen over eight different levels. Back in the day, there was no "save" to the game, so if you couldn't make it to the end by starting at the beginning, you had to start over.
It really was our release from the stress of being full-time students. Plus, I was working 25 hours a week doing data entry, and we didn't really have the money to go out and do anything. And seeing as all those sucker BYU kids in our ward would spend every weekend with their parents, the Nintendo became a good outlet for us to spend some time together, play together, and decompress...and not feel lonely.
(As a side note, after a year, we became friends with another couple in our ward who loved to play cards, and we would show up most weekend nights after their kids were in bed to play cards until all hours of the night. To this day, we still stop in and see the Mathesons when we are out in Utah.)
So while everyone knows that I willingly throw away most things that are outdated or unnecessary, I could never part with that Nintendo. In fact, several years later we ran into a guy who was first into eBay when it came out, and he tried to convince John to see his trilogy of Final Fantasy games for $70. And believe me, when we were poor medical students with three kids and a mortgage, $70 was a small fortune.
But we didn't. We held onto all our old games. Life Force. Monster in my Pocket. Gradius. Jackal.
So occasionally, we will pull out the old Nintendo, and hats off to the Japanese engineers who designed it, because it still works! Yes, Nintendo has since put out a console that is a mini-replica of the original with ALL the games loaded onto it, but I ask you where's the fun in playing the Nintendo if you don't need to blow on the back end of the game before you put it in the console, praying that it will work?
And what game do we always start with? Contra.
I will admit (and I think John would agree)--I'm better at the game than he is. It's simply a matter of memorizing where each and every bullet comes from. Once you've got that, you can proceed with success. But John for some reason can't seem to remember some of that stuff. So we end up starting over at least 20 times anytime we sit down to play, or he just takes all of my extra guys.
And as much as I'd like to just play myself (I have a few times, and I'm able to get through most of the game without even trying), it just doesn't feel right. John and I are Conan and Rambo, fighting the evils of the alien races, showing our bare-chested pectorals and our bulging quads in our tight-fitting pants. That ALONE should kill some of the green, Alien-esque monsters ;-)
So this past Fall, we pulled out the Nintendo again with the intent to once again beat Contra. We spent many evenings, weeks, and even months working on it. Hours can pass and we just keep going...and starting over...and dying. I had gotten close to the end with John having died a level or two earlier, but in the end, John rubbed his figurative rabbit's foot, and finished the game by himself. I was so incredibly depressed about it (pride goeth before the fall, eh?) that we restarted the game and finished it again...together.
I'm really incredibly thankful that our lives together have always included fun. From playing Nintendo on a green TV propped on a milk crate, to traveling the world and seeing things that most people dream of, to going back and playing Nintendo on our flat-screen TV sitting on our leather couches, we have managed to at least the fun going in our married lives.
We didn't need much really. I put towels over the moving boxes that we had and called those end tables. And we had milk crates too for furniture. However, about six months into marriage, John stumbled upon a garage sale (although nobody in Wymount had a garage, but anyway...) and found a very old, very used TV for $20. The problem was that it was a green and white TV. Yes, GREEN and white. Not black and white, and certainly not color. Green and white. We put it on one of our milk crates, adjusted the antenna so that we could pick up BYU TV, and sat down together for lunch most days to watch Perry Mason, an old detective show. Again, in green and white.
Before we had gotten married, I had house sat (during my homeless months) for a family who owned a Nintendo game system. The original Nintendo. John would come over on Saturdays, and we would sit and play Mario Brothers for hours. I know that prior to this, he had played video games in arcades, and I had spent countless hours playing Space Invaders with Vannette on her Atari when I would go visit my granddad during the summer in Las Vegas (and at that time, Vannette had a constantly lit cigarette sitting by her arm from which she would take a drag in between alien massacres). So we were no stranger to video games (and at this point, I digress again to appreciate that I never had a female role model who struck strictly to gender stereotypes, because believe me, back in the day, women didn't play video games, but that never stopped Vannette...and consequently me).
So almost ten months into marriage, John's 24th birthday was approaching, and I knew that all I wanted to get him was a Nintendo game system. I would like to think that I could have bought one used back then, but there was no eBay or Craigs List, so unless I could find one sold on the street, it was going to need to be a new purchase.
We had stashed $2,000 in a CD (a certificate of deposit) that had an unbelievable rate of 6%! Today's rates rarely go above 2%. It was for a period of six months, because in al honesty, we weren't sure if we would need the money or not, and if we withdrew it early, there were severe consequences. So the money was just sitting in the bank at this point.
It just about killed me, but I withdrew $200 to buy an Original Nintendo game system for $199.00. It's crazy to think that game systems now aren't that much more than they were 30 years ago. I wrapped it up and gave it to him.
And it's crazy to remember now, but we would sit in front of that green TV, playing a few different Nintendo games that we managed to buy. Bubble Bobble was one of the first because John's family loved playing that game. Link also was a big one. And Final Fantasy. We played Castlevania together along with any Konami game.
The best and brightest of all however? Contra.
Two Arnold Swarzenegger-type men, bare chested, and wielding machine guns, moving from left to right, or up and down on the screen over eight different levels. Back in the day, there was no "save" to the game, so if you couldn't make it to the end by starting at the beginning, you had to start over.
It really was our release from the stress of being full-time students. Plus, I was working 25 hours a week doing data entry, and we didn't really have the money to go out and do anything. And seeing as all those sucker BYU kids in our ward would spend every weekend with their parents, the Nintendo became a good outlet for us to spend some time together, play together, and decompress...and not feel lonely.
(As a side note, after a year, we became friends with another couple in our ward who loved to play cards, and we would show up most weekend nights after their kids were in bed to play cards until all hours of the night. To this day, we still stop in and see the Mathesons when we are out in Utah.)
So while everyone knows that I willingly throw away most things that are outdated or unnecessary, I could never part with that Nintendo. In fact, several years later we ran into a guy who was first into eBay when it came out, and he tried to convince John to see his trilogy of Final Fantasy games for $70. And believe me, when we were poor medical students with three kids and a mortgage, $70 was a small fortune.
But we didn't. We held onto all our old games. Life Force. Monster in my Pocket. Gradius. Jackal.
So occasionally, we will pull out the old Nintendo, and hats off to the Japanese engineers who designed it, because it still works! Yes, Nintendo has since put out a console that is a mini-replica of the original with ALL the games loaded onto it, but I ask you where's the fun in playing the Nintendo if you don't need to blow on the back end of the game before you put it in the console, praying that it will work?
And what game do we always start with? Contra.
I will admit (and I think John would agree)--I'm better at the game than he is. It's simply a matter of memorizing where each and every bullet comes from. Once you've got that, you can proceed with success. But John for some reason can't seem to remember some of that stuff. So we end up starting over at least 20 times anytime we sit down to play, or he just takes all of my extra guys.
And as much as I'd like to just play myself (I have a few times, and I'm able to get through most of the game without even trying), it just doesn't feel right. John and I are Conan and Rambo, fighting the evils of the alien races, showing our bare-chested pectorals and our bulging quads in our tight-fitting pants. That ALONE should kill some of the green, Alien-esque monsters ;-)
So this past Fall, we pulled out the Nintendo again with the intent to once again beat Contra. We spent many evenings, weeks, and even months working on it. Hours can pass and we just keep going...and starting over...and dying. I had gotten close to the end with John having died a level or two earlier, but in the end, John rubbed his figurative rabbit's foot, and finished the game by himself. I was so incredibly depressed about it (pride goeth before the fall, eh?) that we restarted the game and finished it again...together.I'm really incredibly thankful that our lives together have always included fun. From playing Nintendo on a green TV propped on a milk crate, to traveling the world and seeing things that most people dream of, to going back and playing Nintendo on our flat-screen TV sitting on our leather couches, we have managed to at least the fun going in our married lives.
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| This is actually the screen at the end of the game. I posted this on FB, and the husband of a woman I know in our ward saw this pic and couldn't believe that we had actually done it ;-) |
Yeah baby!!
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