Standing in the Ticket Blaster at Chuck E. Cheese.

Just seeing a six-year-old Birthday Girl jump repeatedly up and down for the experience of entering the Ticket Blaster® at Chuck E. Cheese may be reward enough for those of us who’ve never had the pleasure. It’s the culminating experience of an event that incorporates rounds of singing, eating pizza, and playing games to your heart’s content with a cup full of oh-so-valuable tokens.

First, enter the Ticket Blaster® and tuck in your shirt so when you grab tickets, you can stuff them into the neck of the shirt without fear of having said tickets sucked into the maelstrom.  (Rarely works, though. Shirts just don’t stay tucked.)

Then, with goggles in place and hands outstretched, you dream of grabbing a bundle so you can exchange ’em for a big ol’ prize.  But if you’re not careful, you could just freeze in place and catch almost nothing.

Frozen with excitement in the Ticket Blaster.

Or not.  It could be your lucky day — the day you catch few tickets except the one that counts:  the 1000 Ticket!!!!  And if you do, you hold on tight and pose for the cameras, ’cause you’re a winner!

Capturing the big one at Chuck E. Cheese.

And then, and only then, you can run, not walk, over to the gift place and get what you never even knew you wanted:  A Giant Blow-Up Guitar —  the best reward of all! (Elvis, eat your heart out.)

Ah, to be six again!

For more about birthdays at Chuck E. Cheese, click here.

Fore more entries in the WordPress Weekly Word Challenge: Reward, click here.