What a life

General vintage slot machine related topics.
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tallstory
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What a life

Post by tallstory »

I have been reading a book by Nick Laister called Pennies by the Sea. It is about the early amusement arcades, mainly in Bridlington. A very interesting background to how they operated. Here is a quote from the book:

Joyland staff, hours were long and the rewards were low. Former mechanic, Ron Stockwell, who worked at the arcade in the late 1940s, remembers:

"We used to start at ten in the morning, sometimes nine, and then finish at about ten or eleven at night. Seven days a week. It could be three o'clock in the morning when we finished on the day we emptied the machines. The men were given only two ten-minute breaks - one at lunchtime, and another in the evening - to allow them to go out and get their tea."


Many of us remember those grumpy old men in brown overalls who ran the arcades but, if this was a typical working enviroment, no wonder they were grumpy.
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badpenny
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Re: What a life

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..... and on top of doing that, they had to put up with us cheeky gits jamming bits of lolly sticks down the coin slots.
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coppinpr
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Re: What a life

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"We used to start at ten in the morning, sometimes nine, and then finish at about ten or eleven at night. Seven days a week. It could be three o'clock in the morning when we finished on the day we emptied the machines. The men were given only two ten-minute breaks - one at lunchtime, and another in the evening - to allow them to go out and get their tea."
"luxury !!" and you tell the youngsters of today and they don't believe you :didact:
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