Wecome To Clawland

 

Claw-crossed lovers: “Oh, hi. I didn’t see you there. Say, you’re cute. And you like me, I can tell. You’re smiling at me! I want to take you home. I know it’s a longshot, but I’ve got a pocket full of change and I’m willing to take the risk.”

When I was in elementary school my best friend and I went along with her dad to a bowling alley where he was in a league. Having no interest in watching men throwing large objects in a straight line, Heidi and I wandered off to focus our attention elsewhere. They had a claw machine by the lanes and that night we won, not just once, but four times. It was unbelievable! Unheard of! I recall that one of the stuffed animals was a white seal. This handsome fellow was about the length of my forearm and was dressed in a cap and scarf with a X-mas feel to it. I looked upon him fondly over the years, even as my distain for cold Michigan winters grew.

I always have thought of that victory as magical. Something made it stand apart from other “small” victories when I was young. Truth is, the literal thought of memories has always felt a bit foreign to me. I had my first seizure when I was four and I took powerful medication for epilepsy up until the end of my elementary school days. This combination really seemed to pull out my memories’ stuffing for those years. I put time into lots of playful activities back then. For example, I took ballet for many years. Though, while I have pictures to prove it, I don’t actually recall any of my time in those tiny pink shoes. I do however have some memory of the day I took home Mr. Seal and his friends from the bowling alley.

“Where there is love, there is life.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Last year, an article was written about the late James Akers Jr. In it, his widow recalls when they were first dating: “We went to the old Zodiac on North China Street for dinner. The hostess says ‘two?’ and walks off. I follow. But when I went to sit down, Jim wasn’t there. He arrived shortly with a big grin on his face. ‘They have my claw machine.’ ‘Your what?’ ‘I said.’ “I didn’t know arcade games like he did. When his first marriage was over he put his arcade games up for auction and the people at the Zodiac happened to buy it.”

 Striking the notion that James had ADHD, I think it took something with real magic to lure him away from his future wife. Unlike his first marriage, James stuffed pals were dependable. Stuffed animals don’t break or dent. They have a lasting durability and can be fixed with a needle and thread.

There truly is a special bond that occurs when we interact with our stuffed friends. We have an unwritten agreement to watch each other’s back. They support and carry all of the emotional weight we throw into them and, in exchange, we keep them "safe." We feel in control and capable of nurturing them. Many times when we part with an old friend we arrange a re-homing (give away to someone) adoption (garage sale) or we may live with them through retirement age (donate) and we are never happy to see them "die." Putting a loved stuffed pal into the trash is depressing and is likely done quickly and kept out of view. The idea of tossing them into the kitchen garbage to be covered with plate scrapings is, surely, an action reserved for some kind of monster.

Welcome to Clawland..

The toys that live in the Plexiglas boxes at bowling alleys, restaurants and supermarkets live in Clawland. It’s a place that celebrates helplessness and doesn’t condemn it. It embraces the softer side of search and rescue. They won’t be crushed or tugged at, but gently swept up and away like a freshly blown bubble, delicately adrift. Their fuzzy faces smile at us as they await their turn to be outside the looking glass. The silver claw shines in an offer of support, not judgment. It doesn’t care how old you are. Unlike Toys ‘R Us “where a kid can be a kid!”, but an adult just buying stuffed animals for themselves “can be a weirdo!” By claw law, obtaining squishy, stuffed pals is socially acceptable.

Clawland celebrates all major holidays, of course. The Plexiglas crew sports festive attire when appropriate and sometimes even long after. And yes, there is a Santa Claws! Or Santa Claw, as the story goes. In 2011 the Gizmodo Gallery in New York had a 2000 pound claw machine that allowed participants to try and win prizes from the comfort of their own home.The catch of this installation being that grabbing a prize meant whoever was in the gallery awaiting a prize got to keep it. Being that you could only play this online, you had to hope that you would pick up one of the special prizes that would then be mailed to your home address.

Part 1: Fluffy Meets Toughie..

Like other strong cultures, Clawland also celebrates its athletes in a grand competition. Though not the Olympics, the World championships were help in Olympia in 2012. The World Arcade Claw Organization’s (WACO) championships featured a day long competition. With sixty-five competitors from across the world: kids, men and women from all walks of life faced off. Competition started with a demanding test of endurance with twelve hours at the claw. This helps to “…separate the real champion competitors from the pretenders,” according to Gregory Kproku, an underground claw legend and founder of WACO. The endurance round is followed by a skills round and the champion is determined by the last round that measures speed.

Sadly, the truth is that (outside the Plexiglas), corruption had been lurking in the world of competitive claw machine championships. The rigged, tainted competitions started back in 2001 and ramped up in 2009 when winners got large payoffs, lawsuits came out over money and fame promised to one chosen victor, and even the possible murder of John Koflanovich; the former president of the (now dissolved) International Crane Machine Association.

Though even the most tragic outcome of life on the dark side of the claw started out with magic. John and his college roommate, co-founder of ICMA, and current member of WACO Kevin Mattingly never sought out these machines at first. According to Mattingly, “I don’t know where it came from, but a crane machine turned up, tipped over in the middle of our room. Rather than get mad about this strange hazing, we picked it up, plugged it in and started playing.” This state of innocence was a far cry from John’s malicious behavior that included spreading rumors, shaking down people for cash and the roughing up of 2008’s champion Joe Nguyen, who beat out the rigged winner based purely on being a better player. In a newly run WACO, the 2012 championship was rightly won. The trophy and prize money was handed over to Nguyen. In the speed round he freed 104 new stuffed friends from a corrupt past, an entire village worth.

Part 2: Speaking Up for those without a “Push-to –talk” Button

            It’s nothing new to hear about the stuffed animals that reside in “bad neighborhoods” described as sad and depicted as a lost cause. In a film produced by Aaron Cansler called “The Saddest Claw Machine in New York,” she reinforces this old stereotype. We know, of course, that our stuffed allies don’t ask to live in any particular area. Though Cansler only seems to notice the graffiti and plastic bag, worn in defense of the weather. One reviewer (Mario Agular) defends those stuffed inside saying, “ .. is a machine still wonderful when it is worn and weary? Yes, yes it is.” And “ Is this a story of existential persistence? Perhaps. But it seems more like a statement of universal truth: Claw machines are always wonderful.”

Though many haters may hate, our pals keep on smiling. There is no rage in the claw machines. In fact, harmony is upheld as a way of life and the more friends they live with, the better life seems to be. The cotton-faced, live atop the polyester eared and the rayon dressed alike. In the eyes of our plush pals, all creatures (flesh or fluff) are equally machine washable. Some people, though, want to start labeling the huggable for the sake of the all mighty dollar.  

Part 3: It’s a ‘Dry Clean Only’ World Out There

            This past January, Senator Kelli Stargel proposed a bill to determine legal or illegal standing for Clawland residents. What is the main factor of rightful residency, you ask? The answer: “prize value.” The bill would make it clear that claw machines would only be legal by following a set minimum value for its stuffed residents that the skill-based game directly dispenses. The Senator is looking to only allow those valued at $5.75 to stay until they are naturally relocated via Claw law. The cost is based on how much seventy-five cents in 1967 is worth today; the idea being that prizes of seventy-five cents are not things that would entice people to play games.

In fact, some Claw-landlords put their money where their claw is. Some claw residents at Bob’s Big Boy in Barstow are presidentially dressed in ten, twenty, fifty and even one-hundred dollar bills that are belted with a rubber band. Louie Musa, who owns many Barstow claw machines, reported that even though many people win prizes, most people visit such machines and take pictures without taking a new friend home. He admitted to also having shoved in i-pods and laptops into some machines based on his belief that people don’t want to spend money on claw machines. Though times they are a changing, it continues to be that with mo’ money comes mo’ problems.

The Leap Home...

            Who doesn’t prize an endless hug? Someone who will always wait for us with a smile? Unlike hugging a person or animal, there is no length of time reached when reassurance from a stuffed pal turns into an uncomfortable moment or “the claws come out” to cause hurt. They are so considerate, in fact, you can spend the day together and know they won’t leave you with a mess to clean up or parts to find dropped somewhere.

            What an invaluable contract we have with them. They give us emotional protection in exchange for being their physical guardians. A good example of this is from when I was a kid and I had a stuffed animal net. It was like a hammock for plush pals, hung high in the corner of my bedroom. I could look up from my slumber position and see all their smiling faces above me in their “safety net.”

             The claw itself, as a tool, is half the harmony in Clawland. It plays the role of caregiver before we do. Because of this, I had to wonder if a claw by any other name would be so sweet? So, I looked into another kind of “claw competition.” I found out that the MCM & CIC Crane Operator Rodeo -with Regional Qualifying Rodeo hosts in cities across North America— is the largest crane operator recognition program in North America. The parallels to Clawland cranes were plain to see. Obviously, the holding of a grand competition is one. In competition, the tests are also measured three ways. They are timed and monitored by the judges for load control, depth perception, and accuracy. In addition, one objective of the competition is to introduce young people to crane operation (as a profession). The main objective though is to underscore the need for safe crane operation. This is repeated throughout the literature, as care and delicacy are prized.

            It didn’t take long to stumble upon a tale of magical success either! One of the regional hosts for this competition is Imperial Crane Services, Inc.  An “American success story that began with a simple, uneducated man – a son of German bean farmers – who in 1969 had the courage to buy a single 25-ton crane … outspoken John Bohne worked his knuckles raw to become one of the most powerful businessmen in Chicago, while also building what has become one of the largest crane companies in the world … consistently delivering to their clients the highest levels of safety in the industry.” Unlike the WACO tale of deviousness and betrayal mentioned earlier, B.J. Bohne (John’s son appointed CEO after his passing) seems to have better ethics. His bio states that “he serves as an avid philanthropist through his charity, The Bohne Foundation, dedicated to needy children, education, medical research, and to serving the needs of local communities around the world.” Surely B.J. is living by Claw law in wanting to protect others.

My First Claw..

            I must admit, my outside the box crane query has some deeply laid roots for me. I spent many, many years just loving construction equipment without a clue as to why. (Likely due, in part, to the phenobarbital I took for my epilepsy years ago.) Still, I was drawn to it. Seeing construction sites popped an instant smile on my face. The connection was buried until my late teens, but for all those years prior, my smile was all the (muscle) memory it took to convince me that I had Claw Love. Wonderfully for me, when I was getting into adulthood, I passed by a park I used to play at as a kid, and there it was. In the far corner of the sandbox, sturdy as ever, perhaps some yellow paint chipped off to show the shiny silver belly beneath- was my first crane. It all came together in my mind. It suddenly all made sense. I knew it had been my prized love on the playground. I would sit and play for hours and hours..

When it comes down to it, love and safety are based in memories. These memories can be seen in the mind or felt in our bodies, but are equally as precious. I do not have Mr. Seal any longer and I’m not that kid who stumbled into the magical claw machine in that bowling alley. I did stumble into a magical claw machine in a dive bar a few years ago with a good friend, resulting in multiple victories. I do have Mr. Dragon now, who is green and the size of my two hands. Like when I was a kid, Mr. Dragon stays nearby while I slumber. Not resting in a net, but close to the ground and in the bottom of a cat tower. As a natural emotional guardian, Mr. Dragon sits close to my chocolate reserves. Though the contract may have been re-written, the magic remains and an endless hug always awaits.

Sourced:

Agular, Mario. "This Beat Up Old Claw Machine Will Charm and Delight You." Rev. of Saddest C Claw Machine in New York. Web log post. Gizmodo.com. Gizmodo.com, 12 May 2012.

Cejnar, J. (2010, Sep 10). Claw games lure travelers with surprise incentives. McClatchy – T Tribune Business News.

Chatham (2011) The santa claw at gizmodo gallery: Newstex.

Kam, D. (2014, Jan 16). Stargel bill addresses arcades' issues. The Ledger.

Rasmussen, F. N. (2013, Aug 30). James L. akers jr., arcade machine collector. McClatchy – Tribune Business News.

Sparks, Brandon. "Cranes, Claws And Controversy in Olympia." Web log post. OlySports. Sparks,1 Apr. 2012.

"What Is the Crane Rodeo?, Chicago, IL." Crane Operator Rodeo. Crane Operator Rodeo, n.d.