人兽性交

Tucked away in an industrial park on Ellis Drive in Aurelius, the company in 2025 is celebrating its 50th year of ownership by the Hilimire family 鈥� a bull's-eye, in darts scoring.

Father and son Larry and Matthew "Doc" Hilimire try to have similarly close relationships with the bars, restaurants and other customers they service. Stanton supplies about 500 of them in New York and Pennsylvania with electronic dartboards, pool tables, jukeboxes, pinball machines, ATMs and more.聽The company operates dart and pool leagues as well.

Those relationships are important, Doc told 人兽性交,聽because acquisition and evolution are fundamental parts of the coin-operated vending business.聽

Stanton, for instance, acquired Scolaro Amusements in Auburn and Mohawk Amusements in Syracuse in the '80s. The next decade, it took over routes from South Shore Automatics and R&J Amusements, both in Ithaca, and Seneca Music in Geneva. Doc said the company saw its biggest growth in 2003 after taking over Syracuse Vending, and it acquired even more companies and routes in the 2010s.

"A lot of the time, vendors are looking to get out of the business or did not have any family members to take over," Doc said.聽

That's also why Larry's father, Dick Hilimire, and uncles kept the name of the company when they purchased it in 1975 after the death of owner Ed Stanton.

They didn't want to lose the relationships he had built, Larry told 人兽性交 at Stanton's headquarters.

"What a nice group these Auburn people were," he said.

A coin drop in history

The Hilimires have come a long way from primarily servicing cigarette machines with Ace Automatics, a Waterloo food vending company they began running in the early 1950s.

"I'd have to tape pennies to the bottom of cigarette packs," Larry said.

That was his first step into the family business as a 10-year-old, and was how smokers got their change. But in 1976 he jumped into the position of manager, which he called a big learning curve. He focused on games and jukeboxes while Dick oversaw the company's operations and two of Larry's brothers, Tom and Jack, ran Ace from its locations in Seneca Falls and Malone.聽

At the time, record jukeboxes were still everywhere and arcade games were rising in popularity 鈥� particularly after the 1978 release of "Space Invaders."

"When it came out, the warehouse smelled like there had been a fire," Doc said. "There were tons of ashtrays filled with cold cigarettes because the crew was up playing the game all night long."

What's now known as the golden age of arcade games continued with hits like "Pac-Man" and "Donkey Kong" in the early '80s. Their hollow cabinets hit garbage cans that would overflow with coins.聽

Today, Doc said, credit card readers have replaced coin slots on the games at arcades and family entertainment centers, including the 22 that are Stanton customers. Another technological shift took place in the '90s as CD jukeboxes replaced record ones, only for those to be replaced in turn by TouchTunes and other digital jukeboxes in the following decades.聽

Those changes also tilted the balance from cash to credit and debit. Doc said only 30% of plays at the company's approximately 500 TouchTunes jukeboxes use cash.

One thing that hasn't changed since the 1970s, however, is the popularity of dart and pool leagues.

Stanton continues to operate them along with an annual January pool tournament in Auburn and the springtime聽New York State Dart Tournament, a tradition dating back to 1983. They've been helpful during hard times, which included the state laws that limited indoor smoking in 1987 and then restricted it in 2003. Smokers spending less time in bars was bad for business.

But if the Hilimire family could handle those challenges, Larry said, it could handle anything.聽

Cuing up a next generation

Larry isn't looking to retire just yet, but when that time comes Doc said he's confident he'll be able to take over the family business.

"When I was 13 years old ... my dad asked me what I would do when I grew up. I said I would take over Stanton Automatics," Doc said.

"He said, 'I want to let you know the first generation starts the business. The second generation builds it up. The third generation' 鈥� well, in his language, you鈥檇 never be able to write.鈥�

Doc laughs about it now, but the notion of the third generation screwing things up has always sat in the back of his mind. He said he won't let that happen, however. He shares with his father a work ethic that led Larry to log plenty of 12-hour days. That left his late wife, Nancy Hilimire, to take care of Doc and his sister Lindsay. Nancy passed away in 1999 at the age of 51.

Growing up, Doc learned the business step by step, starting with minor tasks like cleaning machines before climbing the ladder.

He and his father are proud of their ability to retain employees like Lance and Charla Gummerson; Tom and Mike Mitchel, who helped influence the pool league; and Rick Howland and Mike Crowe, who have been employees since the day the Hilimires took over Stanton 50 years ago. The company has also retained some customers for decades, with聽O'Toole's Tavern in Auburn being the oldest.

The family takes pride in the more immeasurable parts of its legacy as well. It has given children and families enjoyment with arcade games and pinball machines. Bar customers have something to pass the time and maybe spark conversation if there's a dartboard or pool table. And cuing up a song to add to the night's soundtrack has become as easy as a few swipes and taps.

Not only has Stanton Automatics helped make those memories, but in the process it has helped those fellow local businesses.

"It's a great feeling," Larry said, "knowing we've helped them succeed."