Remember when we were kids, there was always that one kid who came to your house, and the first thing they would say was, “Can we play on your Nintendo?” Then, if they ever got one of their own, it would become, “Can I borrow your Contra cartridge?” Eventually, they would get their own games and trade with you at best, but no longer would they visit you, no longer would they hang out. That was the Nintendo friend.
I had one of those, his name was Victor. Church-going family, cool kid, he had about three or four sisters. When I was growing up, birth control wasn’t really talked about in our church community, so it wasn’t surprising that some families had a lot of kids. The idea was, “If God wants you to have another kid, you have another kid.” But, I digress, let’s not go down that rabbit hole.
Anyway, one of his sisters liked me, and I kind of liked her. She had pretty green eyes and a cute face and was all-around attractive to me. This dude was such a Nintendo friend that he would bring his sister over to hang out with my sister in exchange for Nintendo time. That was pretty low, practically trading his sister for game time. Just not right.
Later on, they moved to a different area, and I visited on occasion, but in the pre-cell phone, pre-text, pre-email, and pre-Facebook days, keeping in touch once they left the block was nearly impossible. I’d love to know whatever became of him and his family, but it’s likely I’ll never find out. I can’t even remember his last name or any of his sisters’ names. Oh well, it was good while it lasted, Nintendo friend.
Did you have a Nintendo friend growing up?
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