New York Daily Photo
Vanishing New York reports the closing of one of my favorite high school hangouts — the Chinatown Fair on Mott Street. It was famous for having a tic-tac-toe playing chicken (they also had one that danced, but he was generally less impressive).
The New Yorker
It was a long time ago, but I think he beat me once, and the couple of other times I played, I fought him to a draw. When one in the line of hen-hustlers died, the Times ran an obituary.
Here’s a scene from the schmaltzy movie, Falling In Love, with Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro. (Never saw it, but remember seeing a scene being shot in Grand Central back when I was a messenger– they play Westchester commuters that fall in love.)

Anyway, I used to hang out there because it had one of the greatest pinball machines ever, the Fireball.

Fireball photos courtesy of Pinball Rebel

It not only was one of the first machines to have multi-ball action, but it was the first to have a rotating disk in the center that would send the ball flying in random directions. I dropped a lot of quarters into that machine.
Some great pictures of Chinatown Fair here.
