Sophie likes the arcade games at Chuck E. Cheese — especially the kind that win her tickets so she can get prizes. Admittedly, she hasn’t yet developed much strategy for these games. If she gets the skee ball all the way up the ramp (i.e., into the gutter) she gleefully rips off her single consolation ticket with the same elation as the kid who just hit the 100-ticket jackpot on a neighboring game.
Fortunately, she also doesn’t covet the 3,000 ticket prizes like older kids (and grown ups) do. She’s entirely content with a bouncy ball, a little plastic lizard figurine, or even a Tic-Tac-Toe game. (She doesn’t know how to play yet, but she really likes the shape of a Tic-Tac-Toe game.)
When we went just after her third birthday, she picked out a nice collection of prizes — a tiny slinky, two bouncy balls, and some stickers, to start.
The woman (high school girl?) giving out the prizes was very friendly.
Woman: You have 20 tickets left. What else would you like to get?
Sophie: Umm… an Orca!Woman: (beat) A what?
Sophie: Orca!Woman: …
Mommy: Fish.
Woman: Oh!
You know that show, Are you smarter than a fifth grader? I have a pitch for a version where adults compete against Sophie.
Even in a contest of Wicked trivia, where I should be an expert, I’ve now learned that Sophie knows more of the lyrics to Wicked than I do. She’s unstoppable!
That arcade is sooo much like my job. I roll my stuff up a ramp; sometimes I hit the “50” slot, usually it’s a gutter and I get the consolation ticket. The most striking similarity is how I take the tickets to the booth to trade for my paycheck. Spooky.
Apropos of nothing, I recall a five year old who knew spiders are “arachnids”. It was fun and impressive, although telling someone they have “an arachnid on their shoulder” doesn’t produce a very strong reaction.
And apropos of even less, I recall a ten year old who put a plastic arachnid on his five year old sister’s shoulder, then said “what’s that”. Woo wee! You coulda sold tickets to that one! To this day — 45 years later — she still rolls up into a fetal ball at the memory.