looking back at the things that we constructed in the past, i cannot help but marvelled at the enterprising and inventive spirit of the children of those days. if you go to blogger chun see's goodmorningyesterday, you can read about the toy gun that his friend chuck made during his kampong days. i too made and played with such a toy, using the same kind of ammunition - the green unripe fruit of the jamaican cherry tree. the tembusu tree provided the best material for making lastik (catapult) which we used to shoot birds and sometimes, dogs.
besides lastik and toy gun, i remember we also had a modified pinball machine. it was made using rubber bands and iron nails and played with colour marbles on a wooden board. to incline the board, we raised the top by placing a piece of wood, brick or a box under it. where would we have seen a real pinball machine? i guess it must have been at the new world amusement park at kitchener road.
there were two versions of the home-made pinball machine. one had a 'shooter' to propel the marble upwards so that it would eventually drop, hopefully, into one of the winning slots. like the actual pinball macine, we also had some devices that would bounce the marble around. this 'bouncing stick' was constructed using a nail with a rubber band wrapped all around it. there were also some constructed using two nails placed about three centimetres (about 1 inch) apart with two or three rubber bands stringed between the two nails.
another version did not have the 'shooter'. you simply dropped the marble from one of the openings at the top. with the board inclined, the marble would eventually travel to the bottom or end up at one of the winning slots.
so, what was the prize for winning at the game. according to one friend who used to play the home-made machine, it was a small bag of colour glass marbles.
of course, our backyard pinball machine did not come with flashing lights and sounds of bell ringing but it did provide us moments flushed with excitement and joy.
in the earlier years, pinball machines found at arcades were the mechanical type. the electronic ones appeared in the late 70s. malaysia banned pinball machines in arcades, amusement parks and private clubs in 1983. i am not aware of a similar ban in singapore.
