ask grandma j

It's A to Z Monday

This week is brought to you by the letter

Grandma J searched high low for the perfect P word without using body parts like peepee pinkie or posterior.

She came up with a blast from the past.

The invention that would put checkers and yoyos on mothballs all over America. Yes, it's the first ever video game to sweep the nation in 1972.....except for the childhood home of Grandma. Oh wait, Grandma J wasn't a child in 1972. But she was a struggling young wife and mother, washing diapers and hanging them on the line to dry while she cooked dinner and fed the dog. So, she got a job so she could go to work and buy her own ATARI Pong game station thing.



It looked like this.....and it was so popular that people were having pong parties where they would throw ping pong balls into little cups, renaming the game beer pong pong contests and tournaments right in their own living rooms.




Arcades and 7-11 started installing coin operated pong game consoles. That was when kids started ditching school.




This is what the screen looked like when the game was in play. Exciting isn't it? Gotta love those graphics. You may find it confusing......so I thought I'd help explain the whole concept.......




Is this better? You hit the little round white ball and your opponent hits it back to you. The game speeds up the more you rally. Isn't this exciting?


In case you can't grasp this game looks too complicated to understand, you can try your hand at Pong right here.


Now, when you're done playing pong, wander on over to A to Z Mondays and check out some of the other P words.