I think that everybody at one point in their lifetime wanted something so bad that it was the only thing they thought about. For me it was a Nintendo Gameboy. I’m going to tell a tale of endeavor, heartbreak, anger, and an unexpected surprise.


Our story begins in August 1989, I was about seven and at the time all I wanted was a Nintendo Gameboy. Now, my family wasn’t rich and we weren’t poor. We were middle class, and the rule in my family was if you wanted something expensive you had to wait for your birthday or a holiday. So when my birthday came around I was dropping hints of what I wanted to everyone I knew. So guess what I got for my birthday? NOT THE FUCKING GAMEBOY! I was pissed to say the least. What I did get however was a season pass to a mini-golf course up the road from me. And the grand prize for getting the ball in the final hole was a Nintendo Gameboy.

The golf course was maybe a five minute walk from my house and my parents would let me go up there from time to time. At the end of the course was the final hole, it was covered with Plexiglas so some dumbass couldn’t drop the ball into the hole and win the prize. This hole was notorious for being almost unbeatable, but I had a season pass and the rest of the year to beat it!



August

When I first started playing I sucked. But I did eventually get better and thought I had a pretty good chance of getting that Gameboy! I went to that golf course almost every day for a couple of months. The owner got to know my name and he was a really nice guy. He would always give me a free ice cream from the machine and let me look at the Gameboy in the case behind the counter. I spent the rest summer at the mini-golf course without any luck, but I was still determined to win. The end of summer only meant one thing. School, and that was the one thing that really held me back from winning the Gameboy.

September

School was taking up most of the time I spent trying to win the Gameboy. I would spend most of the day fantasizing and coming up with strategies to hit the golf ball in the final hole. I always tried to keep it a secret that the golf course was giving away a Gameboy, the last thing I needed was all of those little fucks muscling in on my prize. I always had to make up a stupid excuse for when my friends wanted to hang out because I spent most of my time afterschool at the golf course. I remember that my teacher pulled me out into the hall and asked me why I wasn’t paying attention in class. I told her about the final hole and the Gameboy, and you know what she told me? “You’ll never win that prize”. I was so mad at her so I told her to “Shut Up” and that little stunt cost me a week out of recess. It was no trouble, it just game me more time to improve my strategy.

October

In October the mini-golf course put up Halloween decorations and it was really scary. They put up life size decorations of Frankenstein and Zombies; they had a fog machine, and evil looking Jack-O-Lanterns. When I was young this was really terrifying, but I wasn’t about to let that get in the way of my daily mini-golf. At every turn was something that made me jump but I persevered through it. At the time I would have cut off my left leg to get a Gameboy. Every year on Halloween night they would let trick or treaters play a free game of golf. I remember being really nervous because every kid for miles was trying to get my Gameboy. None of them won, Thank Fuck!


Here’s one of those creepy fuckers I was talking about!

November

This was the last month before the golf course shut down for the winter, and this was my last chance. I tried every day with no luck. I was starting to think by the time someone wins this thing it’s going to be an antique. My very last chance was during Thanksgiving break, I tried my hardest to get that stupid piece of plastic but that didn’t happen. When mini-golf shut down for the winter I was angry. And then that anger turned into depression, and that depression turned into denial, than that turned into more anger, and that anger turned into RAGE!

December

At this point I thought I was never going to play a Gameboy, all my buddies and I were putting it on our Christmas lists and hoping to find one sitting under our tree on Christmas morning. When my family opened up presents on Christmas Eve I didn’t get what I really wanted, but I knew better than to throw a fit around Christmas. The next day we all went to my Gramma’s house for Christmas Day. My Mom always insisted upon everyone who gave me gifts to get me some clothes, I always hated that. I went through every gift until I got down to the last present. It was a big box but I thought maybe it was a Gameboy with a lot of accessories to go with it. It was cloths, I was really holding in the anger at this point. My Gramma told me to look at all the graphic T-shirts she got me, and in the middle was a brand new Nintendo Fucking Gameboy!!!!! I was speechless. It was like the light at the end of a very long tunnel. I remember spending the entire Christmas break playing Super Mario Land and Tetris. It might have been my best Christmas of all time. What could be better?

If you ever tried to get something really hard like I did leave a comment, it’s always fun to read about other people’s experiences.

Thanks for reading!

-The20thCenturyDude