Hey you know what I asked Todd McCulloch what he would wear on the court I see him in some of those shorts Oh boy that funny Well you know you reached out to me when I had Todd on back in the late summer there because we were talking about an event you had, and it's kind of the new thing you're opening up, the Fresh Aircade, and you had this payday in the parking lot. I was so thrilled to see the videos I saw of it. Chuck Webster was there and Brian O'Neill, I think, won a nice little Munsters play field. But what it was was all these games of yours outside, they each had like individual tents or they were under a garage, super distanced. Everyone was wearing masks. Mitch, that was my favorite thing I've seen in the summer. Oh, man, thank you so much. It went really well and everyone, it was received really well by everybody. But yeah, here in Massachusetts, arcades are not allowed to be reopened like in any form. You know, restaurants can do indoor dining. Our casino is open for people to go inside and play, but they are adamant about keeping arcades closed. That seems so hypocritical. Oh, don't even get me started. This podcast will be five hours long. Anyway, I operate another location called A4cade. It's a grilled cheese restaurant with an arcade bar behind it, and we've got about, I think, nine pinballs and a bunch of video games there. And they wanted to reopen. They were like, all right, we want to do indoor dining. But because they had the games, they weren't even allowed to do the indoor dining thing. It's just, yeah, there's no consistency. But anyway, so as a pinball operator, collector, tournament director, you know, back when it was a thing, I was the ISPA state director. Like, I just loved running tournaments and having people get together to play. And it was just killing me not to be able to do anything, to not be allowed to do anything. So just, you know, in listening to your podcast, how people are getting on in life and times of COVID just always has my wheels turning on. How can I do something interesting in Massachusetts where people can be safe, people can have fun, people can play new games? And I came up with the Fresh Air Cave, which is my own house, bringing the games out to my driveway, keeping the games covered, keeping the groups small. And for like, I think we had four people in two hour blocks. Like you would come in, it was treated as like a free play arcade. People were required to wear masks. We had sanitizer and wipes. And again, everything was outside in the fresh air. And that worked really well. The payday in the parking lot piece of it was each game had particular challenges. Like Brian O'Neill, who won the Munsters play field, he beat the Jurassic Park challenge of escaping Nublar. And I think he did it in like under four minutes. It might have been under three minutes, but he's an animal. So he won that. It was just, again, it was just fun to get together, to talk pinball, to play pinball, and just feel like we were in our normal lives again. And it was great. It was great. Mitch, why that was my favorite thing of the summer was because I just thought of the joy you brought those people playing to get together. Because we've certainly missed people over the last few months to give some sort of competition and keep it in a safe environment. But that all aside, the manpower just to get all those machines out there, to put up all these tents, to set up all the sanitation sites. And think about, too, you're putting it outside on your driveway and things like that. So now you've got to level all these games. That took a lot. You've clearly never been to one of my locations. Yeah, and fingers crossed, you've got to pray for good weather. I really shouldn't be talking about it, but I'm trying to put together an underground pinball fight club where people can, in small groups, get together and beat the crap out of each other on pinball machines. So I had a small fresh arcade outdoor tournament, a very small amount of people doing head-to-head match play. And Chuck was there. We were playing outside. Again, it was four machines, and we were tracking the weather, and we had a thunderstorm. storm. You've never seen machines and tents get packed up and move back inside of garage so quickly. But we wound up finishing the tournament at the foot of my garage with the door open. So I guess it was inside, but outside with it pouring rain in the background. Chuck beat me on my turtles game and I was so mad. But then Augustus Eustace beat him in the final. So I felt better about it. But yeah, to answer your question, yeah, the weather can be unpredictable and a bit of a bear to deal with in the outdoor environment. So I got to think of something to do next time, find a better location. That's the thing. You're trying to set up more and more of these and it's because of your love of the hobby. But here you are, one of the many people that has seen what's happened and your kind of world crumbling around you as a pinball operator. That is a major source of income for so many people. And one thing that you and I have been saying to each other back and forth on Instagram is that it sucks right now, but it will come back. Yeah, I believe that. I 100% do too, because of the loyalty of the pinball players, the community, we want to help out. And I think we've seen people do that, buying gift certificates, showing up when these places are open, buying t-shirts, whatever you can do. What are your thoughts of how this is going to get better? Well, I think in the immediate future, being extra safe about it. If you're going to get out and play, you've got to be safe about it. I think it was a Josh Sharp on your show the other day in Tennessee with the bar that was getting together for league, and then someone got sick. I mean, that would be devastating. So the desire for people to play pinball is going to be there always and to compete and get together, but you've got to do it safe. So in the immediate future, as long as people take that seriously, I think there will be a road to recovery. I think in the future, if there are arcades, they're going to have to be bigger. They're going to be bigger in the sense that the games can be spread out. I think it's going to be a long time before there are crowded places like my A4K, my location, another location, Cambridge. You could barely play pinball. You're just jammed in there so tightly. I think those days are unfortunately over. No, no, no. I don't because once we have a vaccine and some proven results of that, we will get back to normal. It just seems so far away right now with what we've been used to over the last six months. But I do believe we'll get back to that. Oh, man, I hope so. I hope so. Because, I mean, just thinking back to Flattops, when we would have events, you were there. I mean, that place would get so filled up. I mean, I loved just seeing everybody there. Even though it was like almost hot and uncomfortable, people were still having a blast and talking and playing. I'd miss that, man. But yeah, once we have a vaccine, we'll be good to go. You mentioned you're an IFPA director for your state, so obviously you have a vote in that. Massachusetts has done quite well as far as COVID numbers. I know it's a struggle everywhere, but that state seems to be pretty responsible. I mean, you get to vote. I don't know if it's monthly or certainly have that communication with the quote-unquote president of IFPA, Josh Sharp. Quote-unquote. Yeah. I mean, he's just the clerical president. I think that's a better term. Not my president. He's not the people's president. You're darn right. But anyway, he is doing a wonderful job with this because of people like yourself, Mitch, and getting that communication all across the world, not just in the States or North America, but everywhere, and what their status is. So you have to be on top of what's going on in the community. Because Josh has even said to me personally that even though he personally isn't ready to compete until there is a vaccine, If Illinois is at a stage where it is acceptable to play in these arcades and even 95% of it is okay to go, he would vote for Illinois to bring back the IFPA. But it has nothing to do with personal. It really has to do with the stats. So I guess you're looking at that. And, again, as we mentioned, Massachusetts is one of the better states for responsibility. Yeah, we cracked down as quickly as possible. And we've been riding it out, and the numbers are looking good. but it's still out there, unfortunately. And you see what happens when people open up and then those numbers rise. And I mean, who knows what's gonna happen in the fall and winter. Like I'm making sure my home collection is tight and ready to go for the winter because I feel like we might get locked down again. So it's just so hard to predict the future. And it almost like week to week around here is what is okay and what the future looks like But I will tell you this Jeff as the state representative of Massachusetts I will be having a state final It going to be at the Fresh Aircade It's going to be the top 16 people of like the three tournaments we had in Massachusetts at the beginning of the year. But we have our top 16, and if I remember correctly, they're all pretty local players. So I'd be thrilled to host that here at the Fresh Aircade, get people outside. Again, if people tell me I'm crazy and they don't feel safe, I'm not going to push it, but based on what I've learned on the few events I've had here at the house outside, I think it can be done in a safe way before, you know, winter makes it difficult, you know, as far as the weather is concerned. So I'd like to do a fall state championship, you know, not for points, just for fun and maybe a trophy. Just for pride and, again, just for that kind of bringing the community together, which you do so well. And, yeah, you mentioned normally it's in the third week in January. Well, that's not going to happen with the weather you get there in New England. But, you know, there's a lot of events there. I mean, obviously, the New England paintball league is massive. Oh, yeah, we didn't have our finals. It was supposed to be like the end of March. Our finals would have been a huge dumping of whoppers in Massachusetts, which is not the worst thing to happen during COVID. But I remember that was right at the beginning of the lockdown. I was a kick in the pants for everybody around here. They're like, you know, more than half the people didn't feel safe with the finals, but that was still at the time where it was like, let's just do it. It was tough. That's what made it real for a lot of people. Yeah, I saw a lot of those New England Pinball League players in November at the Sanctum over the last couple of years. So, again, something else that we just can't imagine possible until we have a vaccine. Right. To the Sanctum, you've been there. That's a large space, and I think they've decided not even to do events there, even when a small capacity, and they're being extra cautious, and I applaud them for that. You know, and I think for them dragging machines outside to their parking lot, that would be a nightmare. I mean, I just think to see such a great place like the Sanctum that brought so many people together with such amazing machines and Jim and Mark and the whole crew there. And that, to see that place not be able to do what they were doing so well, just, it hurts, man. That's the thing, because that's kind of a collective place. and we see these collectives all over North America, even in Canada and Europe and other places too, that these pinball clubs have formed. The tough part is, and you talked about moving ahead in the future, if we were going to have mass people show up at arcades, maybe we have to distance them. Well, that onus goes on the owners of the bars or the arcades because that needs more square footage to have that and really a bunch of empty spaces, whether it be tables for restaurants, whether it be spaces in between pinball machines. So, again, that makes it more difficult. So I think we're probably looking at more of a vaccine solution to remedy and get us back to where we were prior to March. Yeah, a month or two ago, one of my ideas was like, all right, we have so many of these large department stores going out of business, a lot of these restaurants going out of business. I was like, maybe I can get one of these locations for not a lot of money to just do like a pop-up arcade, you know, bring some games in there, have them spaced out in a big, big way. And then I was like, all right, well, you can't have arcades. And I was like, well, maybe I can have it as a retail space. You know, because wasn't modern pinball set up as like a retail place, but it was actually an arcade? Do you happen to know? I think it was like some sort of like permitting. I don't know if that's like not supposed to be spoken about. Oh, sorry. It was a retail store. No, no, no. I mean, that's how they got around it. So, sure, that was creative or whatever. But it was an arcade, but it was also a retail space. And, yeah, that's a whole different story. Yeah, that's what I was trying to figure out a way to do that. But Massachusetts would shut that down real quick. So now we've got to keep it underground with our pinball fight club just popping up in various places. Boy, you certainly come up with a lot of new ideas, whether it's ways to compete, whether it's mods, whether it's. But you know what I do like, Mitch, is that you've got a great spirit about all this, too. I mean, we've all been kicked in the teeth by COVID, but you've still got a smile on your face. And, you know, you do see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There better be, Jeff, or things are going to get ugly. Yeah, you know, I try to stay positive. And, you know, throughout this whole time being locked down, you just got to find, like, the small positives in life, like having games at the house is great. I've got my healthy family. I've got my daughter that I was playing with. Even though I wasn't working, I still got to be with her full-time, like dad university. And, you know, that was a great time spent that it would have been cool if I was working. But I think just focusing on those little things, they can bring you joy. They can take you a long way these days. See, think about this, right? You know, your biggest worry probably before COVID was, will Tom Brady return?