Kitsch or Awesomeness?

Depends on how old you are, I suppose.

I took this photo for the Thematorium contest: kitsch. Then I realized it fit in to the 100 Pictures list under #24: childhood (that being mine).

I found this old Atari console at the dump. I don’t care that it’s really dusty and dirty and grimy. I don’t care that it probably doesn’t work. Most of all, I am not a video game person; I could really care less about them. But I saw this, and all of a sudden I was 8 years old, sitting bent-kneed on my grandparents’ rust-red carpet with my uncle Brandon some Sunday afternoon. Brandon is three years older than I am—more a punky older brother than an uncle. He had an Atari, and every week it seemed he’d get another new game.

“Come on, let’s play my new game. It’s cool,” he’d say as I walked in the door. He had kicked my butt at Missile Command, at Frogger, at Pac Man, at Breakout, at Centipede, and he would invariably kick my butt again at [insert new game here]. After a while I’d realized this and declined his invitation, but Brandon was persistent. “I’ll show you how to play…watch me; I’ll go first.”

Okay, gullible me would agree, and proceed to watch him for the next 20 minutes as he’d play the game he’d been practicing all week. Finally (!), he’d die, and it would be my turn! Never having played the game, invariably I’d stumble through, not having any clue what to do…and die with an electronic splat within seconds.

“Allright! It’s my turn again!” Brandon would exclaim, and the cycle would start again. Punk.

So…kitsch or awesomeness? My memory has made its decision… Very Proustian, this story…

-Melissadilla (Flickr)