You can’t front. Before the home gaming systems explosion of the late 80’s, Chuck E Cheese restaurants were the lick. Tempest was my joint. Centipede, my jam.

Launched by Atari founder, Nolan Bushnell, in 1977 the chains 500 restaurants have seen brighter days.  As it turns out, switching Chuck’s swag from hip hop to rock had their dough looking like their dough.

Chuck lost...weight, a hockey jersey and street-cred.

Chuck lost…weight, a hockey jersey and street-cred.

 

This past Saturday I was sitting on some left-over tokens from a b-day party earlier this month.  So I rounded up Maya & Joaquin @ 8:45 am,   determined to be the first in line to squeeze life from this 8-bit reliquary.

Chuck E Cheese is fashioned after old-time Vegas casinos: alternative currency, absence of clocks, robo-tainment and disgusting food. But it remains a great place to keep  kids occupied.  Always the concerned Father, I established two inviolable rules:

  1. We leave as soon as we run out of tokens.
  2. Don’t put your mouth on anything, especially the pizza.   CEC has always been more petri dish than deep dish.

 

holding a half-hour in my hand.

holding a half-hour in my hand.

Gimme the loot! Gimme the loot!

Gimme the loot! Gimme the loot!

Score!

Score!

Beep. Buzz. Bam.

Alashazam.

22 minutes later,  we were ghost! And 45 minutes later, Joaquin asleep.