A parting Shot!!

[jimmie]

As I said my days on these boards are all but done!! But I did what to go out with a parting shot!!! I had posted on the miggle site but Mike Guttman didnt feel that an honest post about the hobbie was approprate for the miggle site.See the censorship is still on over there.Lets if u guys can hang with this.Why after 16 years would you leave the hobby? well I think the hobby left me a long time ago I just didnt see at first.I started playing again after a ten year lay off when in 92 I found an old game at a garage sale.That find trigger the events that would change my life.Being reunited with an old friend like electric football was exciting!! I started then collecting the game for more parts that lead to a huge collection of hundreds of boards and men.I than found out that the game was still being sold after finding it in Meijers in December of 94.When I found that game I called the company to get the owner of the company who told me that they were having a convention in January of 1995 in Chicago!At first I didnt want to go because I was afraid of what I could find who could possibly be still playing this game now?? Some nerdy kids or something?Well that Sunday I decided to go!! Hell lets do it I told my wife.Chicago was about a 2 hour drive from my house at that time.When I got there I was totally suprise at the crowd guys all about my age group playing and having fun!! WOW!! There standing next to a huge model of Texas Stadium was this cat!! I went over to him and said man thats Sweet!! He started talking which took him awhile!! LOL!!Then I met a cat name Dirk Thomas who showed me some of the sweetest painted teams I had ever saw he and I would became very good friends, as well as the cat with the stadium.We started meeting all over the country to try out some new rules for the up coming tournment called the Texas Shootout!!We met up at hotels and had cook outs this was the best fun I had ever had.See me and my wife had only been married about a year or so,This was the prefect hobby we both like the game and now the people that we had met!!We started a newsletter called Outside the Lines, we introduced the EFL world to the greatest coach and painter ever Dirk Thomas! Dirk told me that after that article little boxes were showing up at his door every day he struggled to keep up. We brought the first ever field goal net to the hobby called the net.That another company tried to sell!!I wanted the EFL world to unite so I called for the Electric football coaches assocation this would have us playing together under one rule set!!! Coaches rejected it we couldnt see eye to eye on rules at that time so we moved on from that!!All the new stuff in this hobby was really always there, custom figures was at the first convention brought by Larry Walker people rejected them because they were still in love with the fab five Matt Miller showed up with the first monster board people said it was too big they like and loved the 620.Football figures where doged at first and the shootout rules,now you see them all the time and people who told me flat out they would never play that way are now playing that way!!WOW!!Things have changed!!Some things!! I was totally against charging people to be on a hobby web site thats why didnt join right away!!!Anyway I was only trying to help when I was called classless for trying to sell something to help here, noway!!That was my que!!Guys I love this hobby If you know me you know that we are a small group really probably the last group that really loves this game.After two years you guys got about 237 paid members wow we have two conventions still maybe 100 people show up those are small numbers.But there are many who play the game many who dont come in here but play often and collect the men.Too me four hundred dollars for a board is way to much but that me!!All the petty fights with the other EFL companys doesnt help either.I hope this hobby can keep going its still a fun game to me I am still playing, just walking away from ever trying to help!! good luck and godspeed to some of the best people I have ever met!! Jim Jackson