Chuck E. Cheese

Chuck E. Cheese - a name that would strike terror in my heart when I was a mother, and now as a grandmother. Every time my grandson would ask me to take him to Chuck E. Cheese, I would say, "No." I came up with every excuse that I could think of. Then one day, I actually said, "Yes," to my grandson, Tyler's delight.

That was the day I packed up my writing bag and took Tyler to Chuck E. Cheese. We arrived there early, before anyone else. The lady stamped the backs of our hands with the same number, to assure we came in together and we would leave together. Nice safety feature. Then she asked if we were here for anything special? "No," I replied,"We're here to just have fun."

Tyler took off for one of the booths and took off his hat and coat. He grabbed my hand and we went to place our pizza order. Besides that, I handed the lady a coupon for the pizza. I was able to use my second coupon to purchase 100 tokens. I handed Tyler a small plastic cup with half his tokens, and he ran off to play the games. With each game, Tyler, would get tickets from the machine. In the end, the tickets were fed into a machine that counted them, and then printed out a receipt with the
number on it. Tyler would be able to cash that in for prizes.

We ended up going to Chuck E. Cheese on a weekly basis. Tyler loved it. We ate pizza for lunch and in the end, I actually wrote and completed a novel. Sometimes I took breaks from my writing and played along side of Tyler. Or, sometimes, I just watched him, soaking up the joy that came from just seeing him play and his reactions.

Tyler taught me something important and that was to have fun. We found it at Chuck E. Cheese and I learned that the place wasn't just for kids. I also learned that these special times that I spent with Tyler would last a lifetime for me and hopefully he will remember the fun he had with his grandmother at Chuck E. Cheese.