The Good Times

Daily Meditation 1,108

In “The Office,” a character once said something along the lines of “I wish there was a way to know we were in ‘the good times’ while they were happening.” I probably slaughtered the quote as I haven’t seen the show in ten years, but the gist is correct.

When I was a child, I had to maintain good grades and behavior to earn time in video games.

To this day, I still remember. I got a copy of the newest issue of Nintendo Power every month. I’d be shaking with excitement walking back up our long driveway with the mail, running my fingers over the cover with Mario or Yoshi or whatever character du jour there was. One issue had some Japanese phenomenon game — called “Pocket Monsters.” I read every damn paragraph just about daily and fawned over the neat creatures.

Of course, that game became the global sensation Pokémon. I convinced my mom to get me Pokémon Blue on day 1 of release. I still have the game and the original save file.

When I wasn’t enjoying my grape purple GameBoy Color, I later had a transparent “frost purple” GameBoy Advance with Final Fantasy Tactics. I’d sit indian legged on my Pokémon comforter for hours playing these wonderful games.

Another fond memory were Fridays. We would go to Family Video (we didn’t have Blockbuster). If I’d been good that week, I…