The Power of the Beetle

Since Alex had such a terrific time at Playland last week, I decided that we'd be better off if we bought season tickets this year. For 65 dollars, a Westchester resident can get a card that gets them free park admission and unlimited rides for the whole summer. Since many of the rides Alex likes require that I ride with him, it made the most sense that I got one for each of us. Yeah! Now we can get our money's worth!

Once again, Alex had other ideas. Once we got into the park, I actually had to convince him into Kiddyland towards his favorite rides. He wanted to head straight for the arcade at the rear of the park so that we could win more tickets towards his goal prize: a metal toy Volkswagen Beetle that costs 350 tickets. (We had about 70 up until then.) Even winning the battle to get him onto rides did not dissuade him for long. He wanted us to play the arcade games - none of which he can play by himself - so we can win more tickets. My first 5 dollars' worth of games were not enough. With each little payout of tickets, he'd grab them and run to the counter to ask for the Beetle. When I would make the mistake of telling him things like 'No, Alex, we need about 250 more tickets for that", he'd just ask to play more games.

Uh, kid? Games aren't a part of the "unlimited" portion of these 130 dollar season tickets, OK?

I was successful in getting him towards the lake to check out the birds. That's were we witnessed a "Geese Parade" as Alex called it. I was also successful in getting him onto a few more rides. But he still insisted on going back to the arcade to try again.  I spent another 5 dollars, the change for which was given to me in a cup to hold the quarters. He begged me over to the Skee-Ball games - a low ticket payout game - and asked to play them. He can't even get the ball to the no-point gutter, so I have to do it for him. He's none too happy about that. He wants to win the Beetle himself.

So, as I was finishing up a round of balls from one game of Skee-Ball, Alex dipped his fingers into the cup of quarters and walked to another Skee-Ball alley. He successfully inserted the quarter into the game's slot himself and a whole new slew of balls came down. I would have let him just try to roll the balls by himself if he could, but all they would do is just come right back down the alley and thud on the floor. I had to do my game quickly - and get a low score - so I could move onto the next one. No sooner do I get to the new one does Alex do it again. He grabbed a quarter from the cup and started ANOTHER game.
Ohhhh, the luring power of the Beetle. It's even winning over the "'Dult Ferris Wheel" [Adult]. That's his favorit-est ride EVER!

Friday, June 4