SLOT B7 | SIXTY-FIVE CENTS | BELDEN & PYX CONFECTION WORKS, TERRE HAUTE | LAST RUN 14 MARCH 2003
· · · THE CIRCLE OF SLOT B7 KEEPS THE BOARD LIT · · · NO WRAPPER DISCARDED · · · SEVEN LAYERS, SEVEN GATES, ONE COIL · · · THE MACHINE IN THE NATATORIUM STILL HUMS ON B · · · WELCOME, FRIEND OF THE WHEEL · · ·
a tribute community, est. 2001 · 4,118 wrappers logged · membership open to anyone who ever fed a folded dollar to a machine and got back a small warm rectangle of arrangement
[ THE WHEEL — LIGHT A LAYER ]
The bar came in seven pressed strata under matte red foil punched with seven holes. The colors are gone; the board carries them now as brightness only. Light one.
SELECT A LAYER
Seven strata. Press a numeral, or let the wheel choose for you.
The Circle does not eat downward. The Circle eats upward, root to crown, one layer per breath.
1–7 light a layer · ←→ step the wheel · space spin · ↑↓ dim the board for vigil
EIGHTH LAYER. Not printed on the wrapper. Not costed by Belden & Pyx. It is the half-second after the coil lets go and before the bar lands — the drop, the little unroofed fall. Every bar had one. Every bar still has one, in whoever is still holding it. Welcome all the way in.
[ FROM THE COMMUNITY ]
brasswheel_marnie2003-03-16 · 11:48 pm
Word came down from the route driver at the natatorium: B7 is being replaced by a pretzel product. A pretzel product. The Circle gathered on the pool deck under the scoreboard, which was off, and we asked the caretaker to switch it on for eleven minutes, and he did, bless that man, and it said HOME 0 GUEST 0 the whole time, which is exactly right, that is the score, nobody won anything, a good bar simply stopped being made.
We ate the last four in the correct order. Malt floor first. Crown last. Nobody rushed. Somebody's little brother tried to start at the top and got gently turned around, no scolding, only a hand on the wrist.
current mood: reverent · current music: Wooden Bell — Slot Machine Hymn · 31 comments
coilkeeper_dov — eleven minutes was generous of him. we owe the caretaker a casserole.
brasswheel_marnie — already made. tuna, sadly. he seemed fine about it.
Not our machine. Photographed on a rest stop pilgrimage anyway — the shape of the thing is the shape of the thing. B7 would be second row, seventh across. Count it yourself.
coilkeeper_dov2003-04-02 · 6:12 am
For the newer members who keep asking why nobody here writes with the small standing pronoun. It is not a rule with a punishment attached. It is only that the bar had seven layers and none of them were alone, and we found it easier to think clearly about the wheel when the tongue stopped putting one little upright bar at the front of every sentence. Say we. Say this vessel, if the mood is grand. Say one, if the mood is shy. All welcome.
Belden & Pyx never claimed anything spiritual, by the way. They claimed "seven textures, one nickel more than the competition." That was their whole slogan. The rest of it — the gates, the upward eating, the vigil — the rest of it grew on the bar the way frost grows on a window. Nobody put it there. It simply arrives when enough people pay the same attention at the same hour.
current mood: lit from beneath · current music: the pool filter, 6am, third floor · 74 comments
anahata_bree — the frost line got me. adding to memories.
lastfoil_ptr — same. printed it. taped it inside the pantry door.
guest_from_ohio — found this community by searching the wrapper text at 2am. hello. the rosewater one was for a bad year of mine and nobody has ever known that until now.
coilkeeper_dov — known now. sit anywhere.
lastfoil_ptr2003-05-27 · 9:03 pm
Inventory of what remains, honestly kept:
Nine unopened bars in the community freezer, Vestal, New York. Not for eating. For proving.
Two hundred and six flattened wrappers, ironed, sleeved, sorted by punch-hole wear.
One coil, purchased from a scrapper for forty dollars, mounted on a board, turned by hand at solstice.
The recipe: no. Belden & Pyx folded into a larger firm and the sheets went wherever sheets go.
Someone will try to bring it back. Somebody always does, with a home extruder and good intentions, and it will taste like a bar and not like the bar, because the missing ingredient is a hallway in 1998 and a folded dollar and a friend waiting with the door open. That is fine. Let them try. The Circle blesses every attempt and eats every failure politely.
current mood: steady · current music: none, on purpose · 12 comments
[ HOUSE PRACTICE ]
1. Eat upward. Root to crown, seven breaths.
2. Never crumple. Flatten, fold twice, keep.
3. The drop is part of the bar. Do not catch it midair; let it land.
4. Share the sixth layer. It was always too much for one mouth.
5. When a machine takes a dollar and gives nothing, say thank you anyway and walk on. The coil is old and tired and did its best for years.
Every one of these is the last of something to somebody. Be gentle in the aisle.
