Unearthing Gameboy
The sketchbook I used to have was missing. I’d looked in the art cabinet in the living room, my workshop, and on the bookcase. The only other hiding place it could’ve been was my office closet, but sorting through that mess was a can of worms I wanted kept shut. Alas, the sketchbook was important, and I knew it wouldn’t resurface on its own.
I got a fresh can of Coke Zero from the fridge as a salve to soothe the pain in the ass that was to come. Taking a long, refreshing drink, I slammed the quarter-empty can down on my desk, flung open the office door, and cracked my knuckles.
After a sweaty 10 minutes of lifting tote after tote, I finally found the sketchbook. Mission accomplished. Cue fireworks and Blue Angels fly-over.
The worst part was yet to come, though: putting all this shit back. As I started undoing the progress I’d made, I stopped to look in a couple of totes; every Enquirer on my birthday from 1986 until 2000 my grandmother collected and gave to me, a box of tchotchkes and framed photos, and my surviving collection of retro video games from my childhood. Atop the pile in that last box was my old original Gameboy with Tetris wedged in the slot.
I took it out, turned it over in my hands a few times, ran a finger over the screen, and tapped the buttons a few times. The way it felt in hand was immediately recognizable. You don’t forget the shape of a Gameboy like this. It felt lighter, though, so I checked the battery compartment: empty, thankfully. I thanked my past self for not ruining an irreplaceable object like this by carelessly leaving corroded batteries in it for decades.
After putting all the totes back in the closet with one less Gameboy in them, I slapped fresh Duracells in the unit and fired it up. The familiar descending Nintendo logo sank from the top frame of the screen and settled in the middle with that iconic “coin” chime. Tetris’ theme began playing shortly thereafter, and it brought me back to sitting in the back room of my grandmother’s house—the one with the ancient TV on the rolling stand and the pull-out couch that would later have a computer in it within a few more years. She gave it to me for Christmas and I remember it being a helluva gift.
I knew it was going to be my photo of the day.