The Manitou Springs Penny Arcade

The Manitou Springs Penny Arcade is the hub of downtown Manitou Spring, CO, a tourist town at the bottom of Pike’s Peak. Jack Kerns painted one of these buildings white with red trim over 85 years ago for a Bingo Parlor. This parlor shifted to arcade games when bingo became illegal. Skeeball, Twenty-One, Horse Derby. Each of these needed a building, so Jack obtained and painted more buildings white with red trim. There were eight arcade buildings by the time his sons took over in the 1960s and 70s.

Alan Kerns, one of those sons, runs the arcade today. I worked for him from 16 to 20. The rows of Zoltans, Ray-o-Lite Shooting Galleries and Tetris machines shape who I am today, a middle aged woman living worlds away.

I always visit Alan on my rare trip back to a town shadowed by the Rockies. He always feigns being a grump when I ask,

“C’mon, Alan, let me go back to handing people change.”

“Get out of here, Gurley, and get on with your life,” he grumbles for effect.

We laugh.

The last time I visited he’d aged. We both had. Him, well into his 70s.

No more Kerns stand in line to take over the Manitou Springs Penny Arcade, the place generations have played games.