08/26/21 Sylvan Beach, NY Early Afternoon

The scorching heat beat down upon us as we walked across the amusement park in 90-degree weather. My sister and I were on vacation with our grandparents, and we were currently on a day trip in Sylvan Beach, New York State. My sister was a seven-year-old girl with blonde hair and she was often being mean to me after finding out my big weaknesses of fear. My grandparents were happy and nice people and were the best in the world if you treated them properly. My grandpa had a beard and grey hair and my grandma had brown hair and a long face. I myself had hair that still looked long (even though it wasn’t) which was the same color as my sister’s.

  We had finally arrived at The Game Room that we were heading to. We walked slowly in. It was a big garage-like room stuffed with people and games to win tickets and spend them at the prize counter in the back. There was so much to do and many places to go, so we chose a ball game. It was an area of the game room that covered nearly an entire wall. It had a slide going up and at the end there were bowls with point numbers on the sides.

  First, I watched my family members play. They threw the ball with enough momentum to go up the slide. Then, it bounced up and landed in one of the bowls. My grandparents had an orange cup of quarters that we would spend.  Whenever we were done playing a round (a round ended when all of the balls were out), the machine dispensed a couple of tickets that we won.

I wondered what things would be there, so I explored. Some of the games I didn’t understand, or I found ones that didn’t dispense tickets. But the real surprise of the day was when I walked over to probably the machine that dispensed the most tickets in the entire room. It had a big spin wheel with a mischievously smiling drawn pirate on the top. There were numbers on the spin wheel such as 05, 15, 25, 200, and 1,000. I saw a woman that had apparently landed on 1,000. I called the family over to play a few games. I didn’t get too many victories, but some were VERY big.

  On my first try, I didn’t expect to get too much, but my expectations turned out not quite to be correct. I spun the wheel. It went round and round. I could hear the clicking of the chooser arrow until it stopped. I had landed on the number 200. I screamed. I had never been so surprised. Also, I jumped up and down at the thought of pleasantness and my negative expectations turned out to be false. The next few times I didn't get much. Such as 05, 15, and 25. But the day's most surprising thing was my third try. I looked away because I wanted the number to be a surprise. Imagine my surprise when I looked back at the wheel, opening my eyes very wide in spite of awe (video footage available). And it very well was a surprise. Because, when I looked back into the number board, I had landed on 1,000 tickets! My reaction was about what it was when I got 200, but a lot more exaggerated. I jumped up and down from pleasantness and joy. It wasn’t short-lived, or forgotten once we got home. My sister wanted a few turns, but I was itching to get to the counter. And, it took about ten minutes for the tickets to come out.

 Finally, after a long time of waiting, we went to the counter to spend our tickets. I got two American Flags and a Color Changing Digital Clock that didn’t quite work right after we brought it back to my Grandparents’ home and tried to use it. Overall, I had gotten an entirety of  1,214 tickets. But, the counter woman rounded it to 1,300, even though it was not exactly what it rounded to.

 At long last we were finally walking out. I had won the day, gotten all the prizes, and paid the price. But now, it was time to go and leave The Game Room.