Life story
Wow. Well, I guess here is my entry.
I too was raised in the suburbs of Central NJ. I too came from a mixed Irish and Italian family. My Grandfather also fought in World War II, in fact, he was at pearl harbor during the attack from the Japanese- he lost partial hearing in one of his ears that day. My parents honestly were honestly not well off, but my father worked in many trades- carpentry, electrification, building maintenance... We certainly did not have a backyard like yours I can say that much!
My parents actually really enjoyed video games. They had Pong, they bought an intellivision- to them a video game console was a sure gift. Growing up my older brother and sister (my sister being the oldest) both got game consoles. My sister started with a master system while my brother got an NES. I honestly cannot remember a time in my life where a video game console was not easily accessible- for better or worse. Eventually my sister got a Genesis and my brother got a TG-16, and eventually even a Turbo Duo. Whenever they weren't playing I would be. My father busted his ass to actually make a really great entertainment center in our basement (now a mess ever since hurricane sandy) where the Duo was set up. First console I ever got to say was my own was a SNES I got for my birthday. My grandfather every weekend would take me down to the game rental store where I'd rent Genesis or SNES game for the weekend.
My dad tried to get me to do a lot of sports like my older brother. Baseball, football, all that sort of stuff. Honestly though I absolutely hated it, mostly because my dad was always the coach.
I don't really remember when, but obvious sometime in the mid 90s my Uncle bought us our first gateway computer with windows 95. I guess it goes without saying that the internet was absolutely life changing. So with the world's information at my fingertips of course all I did was read about video games, emulation, and PC gaming haha.
Fast forward to 2001 with the release of the Gamecube. My father brought me to the nearby Best Buy- I'll never forget how cold it was. Looking back my dad got me that Gamecube for no reason other than to make me happy. I spent many afternoons with friends playing games like Melee with my friends, it really brought us all together.
Unfortunately after I moved out of my parents home I lost a lot of the games I grew up with to theft. That's a whole story in itself sadly. To this day I am trying to get back what I had.
I talked about my dad a lot because sadly he passed away. Yesterday was his birthday and I still miss him very much. Thank you dad for all the sweat, blood, and tears you shed your whole life to raise our family. Thank you.