C.O.C.A. Times

for the remainder of the overnight stay. My flight
out the next morning was a 6 AM departure. I was
up at 3:15. The game had to be wrapped to protect
the glass facing. Like a pinball game, you break the
glass, you break your heart. I shrink wrapped foam
eggshell around the glass portion and then shrink
wrapped the whole game for good measure. I then
used bungee cords to bind the whole thing to an
extra "wheelie" that I had brought just for such pur-
pose. By 4 AM, I was on the road in my rental car,
on the way to the airport.
I'm going to leave out the part of the story where
the driver of the rental car bus gets lost between the
rental car building and the terminal and drives us
around for almost an hour. I'm also going to leave
out the part where I go to the front of the bus after
seeing the same scenery go by for the third time and
yell at the driver. I will tell you that I apologized to
him once he finally got us to the terminal. I was
nervous. I had less that one hour until take-off and
besides my normal pre-flight duties I still had to get
this mystery-wrapped thing through the Security
gauntlet.
The time of day was on my side. There are not
too many people standing in line at 5AM in the
morning at the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport. Which is a
good thing, I think. I came up the escalator looking
like a homeless person on holiday minus the gro-
cery cart. I had my normal over-size suitcase on
wheels with gym bag attached. My flight bag is
hooked to the front of this assembly. The Security
people expect to see this contraption. It's like our
personal "Airstream" for these five day trips we fly.
They did not expect to see the "Winnebago" I'm
towing with the other hand. I asked if they would
like me to disassemble the game so that they could
inspect the insides. The initial screener suggested
that I just load it into the scanner and let the x-ray
man decide. He looked at that x-ray picture for a
looooong time. Ultimately, his only concern was
that I probably could not find room for it inside the
airplane. I was home free.
I'm not mechanically inclined by nature. This is
one reason why I enjoy disassembling and cleaning
up these machines; I get to see the mechanical
genius of others. Or not, as the case may be.
"RAINBOW ROULETTE" is a fairly simple game
over the internet. A particular knowledgeable chap
from Melton, Mowbray (the home of the best pork
pies, I'm told) is Melvyn Wright. Melvyn is a
delightful fellow who maintains a website with a
wealth of information on the British games. The
address is: www.vintageslots.co.uk. I had Melvyn
take a look at the pictures on Ebay. His comment
was, "It looks French to me." Although I collect
mostly British games, I have no objection to a
French game or two. In addition, it took the British
big penny which is a personal requirement I have
placed upon myself in an attempt to put some out-
side limitation on the collecting monster. It is not
uncommon to find German or French games made
specifically for the British market and in the
English coinage.
After receiving several e-mails and pictures from
the seller and a near-disaster bidding procedure, I
was the proud owner of "RAINBOW
ROULETTE." The next challenge was getting the
game safely home. The seller had advertised a crat-
ing fee of $150 in addition to whatever shipping
charge would apply. The game was in the Dallas
area and I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The
advantage I have is my occupation: I'm an airline
pilot. In past purchases, I plan an overnight in the
intended city. I rent a car, drive to the seller's place,
pick up the game and bring it back with me in the
cockpit. Pretty nifty, huh? Yes, it was. I say "was"
because September 11th changed all that. Now, we
go through the same security screening that you do.
The only advantage we have is the ability to cut in
line in front of you to get into the screening process
more quickly. I had no earthly idea whether or not
I could get this game through Security with me. It's
fairly large: 30"x22"x7" and it had gears, wires and
a very old, very dead dry cell battery inside.
Never one to let fear or common sense stand in
the way of my collecting passion, on my next Dallas
overnight, I rented a car at Dallas-Ft. Worth airport
and set off for Mabank, Texas. One and a half hours
later, I was in the seller's antique shop. The game
was even better than I had hoped. It had keys for
both the door and coin box. Additionally, it had the
original tin coin box itself, a component of almost
mythical proportion. I was a very lucky fellow. I
loaded up and headed back to my hotel in Ft. Worth
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