I found out this week I hate roller coasters and other thrill rides. I used to ride them when I was younger, but I don’t anymore. While watching from the safe area behind the fence, it bothered me for all of two seconds, until I heard the shrills from the people on the ride. Apparently, these thrill rides give a biochemical reaction in the brain from the intense physical reaction to the body. I had a lot of spare time to think while The Boy and The Baby enjoyed all of them together.
A huge amusement park reaches every sense of the body. The air was filled with the smell of the fried junk food and sugary cotton candy in the air, as well as the occasional smell of a sick kid. The screams on the rides, the zoom of the power in the ride’s engines or the hydraulic lift of others could be heard with every step around the park. The lights of the carnival games and the neon outline of the rides could be seen for miles when it got dark.
While waiting in the safety zones with other middle aged parents, and even with all the noises, I had a lot of time to think and observe. My most pressing personal question was why I once loved to go on these stomach turning rides and now I get so petrified at the thought of being on one of them. After much pondering, the answer was so very obvious. I don’t want to die.
Yet all of these people, usually in the age bracket of twelve to thirty were in these long ass lines, waiting for an hour or two per ride, for a one to four minute thrill. I realize this age bracket is not yet afraid of dying and are more trusting than me. They trust the inventors and engineers of these rides know what they are doing, and I’m sure they do. However, I’m far more cynical at my age. They trust the ride would be shut down by inspectors if they were dangerous, but I think it can break at any time.
I’ve had the kind of scare, where it raises the hair on the back of your neck. I have experienced this with car crashes, doctor appointments and just being a victim of a few close calls. I don’t feel the need to capture that few seconds of “Holy Shit” to have an exciting life. I’m not really a stranger to trauma and drama, and don’t feel the need to seek it out my adrenaline on a ride that terrorizes me to the quick of my being.
As I’ve gotten older, I have gotten a bigger fear of heights. I think it’s hard for me to relinquish control to another human, so I resist it at all costs. I also am a “what if” person, and a very active imagination. Being on the Empire State Building on our trip to New York was enough for me. I had to back away from the edge and go inside for a bit. I try desperately to get an aisle seat on airplanes, and will keep my mind occupied as much as I can during the flight. After traveling many miles for business, I was absolutely ecstatic to forego the travel part of the job. I strongly believe in the law of gravity and appreciate it more than most people.
The kids convinced me into going on the Sky Bucket ride. Simply a steel cab across the park, up in the sky, suspended on cables, similar to a ski lift with closing doors. I made the mistake of looking down at the tiny, little bitty ant people on the ground. The rest of the ride I took pictures with my eyes closed, only peeking through with one eye to check the camera.
I’ve also learned my luck is not so great either. If something is going to happen, it may happen to me or while I’m on the ride, because I’ve been known to have streaks of bad luck. People who know me well personally always rib me about how crap follows me. I’m also in the steel business, and will see the spot of a little rust on the track or piece of the roller coaster, knowing something is not as strong as it was when it was originally built. Why push my luck?
Knowing I was going to this famous amusement park with the kids, I caught a show on the Discovery Channel, the morning I left Atlanta. It was called “Terror Rides” and this same park had four rides on the show. It showed these type of rides across the country, with some parks, including this one, with specific bragging rights on scaring the crap out of patrons on the rides. When the camera followed these screaming people, I got a preview of what was to come. I gladly waited on the ground, keeping my eye on them through their long lines, and snapping photos of them while they were actually on the rides. My stomach churned as a spectator. I needed no more of a thrill than this.
I take chances on other things in my life. I can make thrills right here, with the same intensity, on solid ground, far more exciting than any roller coaster ride. There is no wait and they last much longer than one to four minutes.
; )
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