THE
ORIGINS OF LADDY
the true
story of Laddy & his Mama
When
I was growing up in Macon, GA, there were very few places
to go to buy video games. Oh, we could go to Atlanta if my
brother and I could cajole our parents into driving us that
far, but it was unlikely unless they needed to make the trip
for something else. Sears had games down at THE MALL, but
they really only stocked the games that Atari would allow
them to relabel under their Telegames license. No, if we wanted
the latest and greatest, there was always a long, blind wait.
That's
right...BLIND. Not only couldn't we get the games, we'd have
no idea of what they'd be like when we finally did get our
hands on them. There weren't any video game magazines back
then. We basically had to take what little coverage we could
find in Starlog or Famous Monsters of Filmland. (oh, and we
walked to school in the snow, too...in Georgia)
Then,
one day, my brother and I heard that the local car stereo
install place was going to be carrying a full line of Atari
and Intellivision games. It was out on Columbus Road (later
to be renamed Mercer University Drive) near the mall, but
it wasn't much to look at. It was basically a cinderblock
building that looked a lot like a bait shop...and it's proprietor
was a guy named Laddy.
You
might wonder why I might remember Laddy's name after all these
years. I mean, we didn't really know him or anything. We got
to know Laddy's name because of Laddy's Mama. Laddy's Mama
would often be sitting behind the counter at his shop (we
never knew if she was in a wheelchair or just lazy), but I
don't think I ever saw her do anything except call for Laddy
to come up front and ring us up or answer our questions. In
fact, the only thing I remember her saying was Laddy's name,
and that was usually shouted at the top of her lungs.
Over
the years, Laddy has been a bit of an inside joke. I can't
tell you how many times I've shouted "LADDY" in
that shrill screech I remember, so when I was coming up with
ideas for cartoons, I couldn't resist letting the rest of
you in on it. After all, not everyone had a Twin Peaks video
game store down the street from their house like we did.
