These machines were a common fixture where I grew up. I remember, even as a little tyke with my father, looking into the glass at the colorful cigarette packages. I even remember asking my father what they were.
When I was old enough to know that a quarter was vastly superior than the lowly half-dollar, dime, nickel or penny, those cigarette machines were always there. Waiting silently by the front entrance of the arcade as I made a beeline for the Tempest cabinet.
When cigarette machines were outlawed in my state, most were shipped out of state or destroyed. My father actually got a hold of two for scrap metal and I remember gutting the machine to get at the cash box inside for those precious quarters. Then working my way to the cigs so I could see what was inside them (in retrospect, I should've sold them for arcade money, meh) . But the machine at the arcade was converted to vend candy. How it escaped the exodus is beyond me. Unfortunately, it was later destroyed in a construction mishap, the same one that damaged the Tempest machine.
Even with the constant influence of smoking, cigarettes and advertisements, not once did I ever have any desire to smoke. When it came right down to it, the addiction of feeding money into an arcade cab was far greater than lighting a couple of sticks and inhaling the smoke. But having a vending machine there, to me, just completes the kind of atmosphere I grew up in. If I can get one, I'll just buy cig sized boxes of candy and put them in.
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Topic: Scavenging is Fun (Read 5055 times)
