rollercoaster
There was a discussion earlier on a message board about people's favorite rollercoasters, then and now.
I haven't been on one in ages but it got me thinking about a particular childhood memory and the strangest, wildest, scariest rollercoaster ride I'd ever been on.
It was in Louisiana when I was about ten. Amusement parks back then would spring up in some empty field for a week or so and then disappear as quickly as they had appeared. They were hardly comparable to the Disney-type superparks we have now... these were fly-by-night operations, usually with an arcade of sorts, a ferris wheel, various carnival-type booths and stands, and of course some kind of rollercoaster. Rickety, wooden rollercoasters.
And this one that I remember had to be the most rickety, wooden-est rollercoaster of all time. I don't recall all the details... Jan and Kathy and I had been out with some of our cousins and it was late at night (for me anyway). I distinctly remember it was past ten and we were on our way home from somewhere and decided to make a late night stop at the amusement park. That in itself was kind of unusual and the fact we decided to take a ride on the rollercoaster even more so.
There were no bars or seat belts on this thing. You know the log ride at Six Flags where you would just straddle a bench-type seat? That's how this was. And we just grabbed what we could and held on for dear life.
How no one ever just went flying off of this thing, I don't know, but it was without a doubt the scariest damn ride I ever went on in my life. No, there was no loop de loop (I guess that would have been tempting fate a bit too much) but it was really fast and I thought more than once my young life would end any second. Just get me home, I thought, and I'll never complain about coming to Louisiana again. The fact that it was pitch black outside made the experience even more intense.
I wonder if Jan and Kathy remember this. Obviously, it was pre-Joe. But it's something that has stayed with me all these years and all this talk of rollercoasters today triggered it once again.
I haven't been on one in ages but it got me thinking about a particular childhood memory and the strangest, wildest, scariest rollercoaster ride I'd ever been on.
It was in Louisiana when I was about ten. Amusement parks back then would spring up in some empty field for a week or so and then disappear as quickly as they had appeared. They were hardly comparable to the Disney-type superparks we have now... these were fly-by-night operations, usually with an arcade of sorts, a ferris wheel, various carnival-type booths and stands, and of course some kind of rollercoaster. Rickety, wooden rollercoasters.
And this one that I remember had to be the most rickety, wooden-est rollercoaster of all time. I don't recall all the details... Jan and Kathy and I had been out with some of our cousins and it was late at night (for me anyway). I distinctly remember it was past ten and we were on our way home from somewhere and decided to make a late night stop at the amusement park. That in itself was kind of unusual and the fact we decided to take a ride on the rollercoaster even more so.
There were no bars or seat belts on this thing. You know the log ride at Six Flags where you would just straddle a bench-type seat? That's how this was. And we just grabbed what we could and held on for dear life.
How no one ever just went flying off of this thing, I don't know, but it was without a doubt the scariest damn ride I ever went on in my life. No, there was no loop de loop (I guess that would have been tempting fate a bit too much) but it was really fast and I thought more than once my young life would end any second. Just get me home, I thought, and I'll never complain about coming to Louisiana again. The fact that it was pitch black outside made the experience even more intense.
I wonder if Jan and Kathy remember this. Obviously, it was pre-Joe. But it's something that has stayed with me all these years and all this talk of rollercoasters today triggered it once again.
posted by gbj at 8:37 PM
1 Comments:
I really don't remember this, try as I might. What I do remember is going to Ponchartrain Beach, which was a permanent amusement park, lakeside somewhere in New Orleans -- how I imagine Atlantic City or Coney Island being decades ago. We went there during at least two summers, in my memory. It was along the shore and there were game booths, a kiddie-ride area, and then the bigger rides -- two that I remember were the big coaster, the Zephyr, and the Maus, a wooden coaster with little cars that looked like mice. The Zephyr seemed to me to be the most terrifying huge roller coaster there could ever be and I don't know how I got up the courage, but I know I rode it several times. Its first drop seemed stories high, with a big light at the top. The Maus seemed too rickety to function without falling apart and in my memory the mouse cars tip to one side when they go around corners, far up off the ground.
We always seemed to go at night, or in the afternoon and then stayed until after dark. I know I roamed the place by myself for hours. There were occasionally showcase acts -- I remember the diving horse.
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