2003-08-26 - 1:27 p.m.

Lazer Tag

While I'm sad that I'm getting rid of some of my childhood things, such as my Lazer Tag gear, it is always great to bring the stuff out and clean it up before sending it to ebay. The point / justification behind me buying a digital camera was so I could begin to empty my apartment.

But the fond memories behind the equipment are fun to relive. And certainly worth documenting.

In high school I had no money. Correction, I had little money. I'd mow the neighbor's lawn, which was a chore. They had two dogs. If you have dogs you know what I had to do. I also worked for an hour or so for the school in the afternoons. They paid me more than I was worth to enter attendance records into a computer. Yeah for data entry.

Today I'm an environmental engineer, but I went from mowing lawns, to data entry, to working reception for Levis Strauss, to going to college and becoming an engineer.

But in my lawn mowing / data entry days, I'd spend weekends with my friends. Lazer Tag was originally so expensive that nobody bought the stuff. Then one day, KayBee toy stores liquidated all of their Lazer Tag equipment. My friends and I had this idea that if a few of us pitched in together that we could buy enough equipment to share.

One friend with a van became the armory. We stowed enough equipment for 10 � 12 people in his van. We then used Radio Shack's Free Battery Club cards to collect enough batteries to power our equipment.

I was small enough that I could wear military surplus hand-me-downs from a friend, so I'd play Lazer Tag in combat boots or running shoes, a flack jacket, and BDUs. So while my friends were playing capture the flag, I was playing commando assault. I'd hide in drainage culverts, ponds, up trees, or sprint through briar patches. It is amazing what you can do when your friends are stupid enough to wear shorts and you decide to paint your face and get dirty. And although nobody can really aim with those guns, speed and stealth meant that I could kill opposing players with so much ease that I was usually put on the smaller teams and forced to use the crappy equipment.

What I'd give to chase some friends around with paint or lazer guns today!

n.p. hocico :: disidencia inquebrantable

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