Amusement Parks

I have always loved amusement parks. Not that I have always had great experiences with them. They say things that happen in our life happen for a reason whether it is to teach us something, or for someone else’s benefit; whatever the reason I have adopted two rules for amusement parks.

1. Never go on any rides that spin

2. Always bring your own vehicle

Remember these lesson’s are personal and we all have our own. Which is why a child usually cannot learn from a parent’s mistake, wouldn’t life be wonderful, but then we would be perfect right, I mean we would have ‘evolved’ into perfect beings because somewhere, someone has made the same mistakes I have. And I’m sure I have made the same mistakes my mother has once or twice.

I’m trying to decide whether or not to tell you how I came up with these two rules. It doesn’t show my good decision making ability.

Rule number one: First tell me, does a girl’s equilibrium change after a certain age, kinda like being tolerant of dairy products after a certain age? Because if it does, this rule wouldn’t apply to you and is specifically for me as I mentioned earlier. I was 14/15 yrs old and we were down in Jamestown for the Field Days, my aunt was a part of the local fire company so they had a great big food stand that we were going to be working at. A dream come true, we were going to be there the entire day, from 8:00-10:00, all day. We got there so early the rides had not even started and certainly people were not standing in line for sausage & peppers & onions. When they did get the rides started, I took my sister and our ‘free’ tickets to go on some rides before the lines started.

Here’s the deal, the operator at the rides have nothing to do all day but start and stop the ride. That’s it, that’s their job and if they don’t have a line of kids standing behind them, makes no difference to them.

And so we got on this ride that went up and spun around and around, the first 5 minutes was great, but 15 minutes into this ride and I’m turning green and my sister is yelling out the car ‘STOP, MY SISTER’S GETTING SICK’, around and around. Finally he stopped and he realized he had a little bit more to do that day than stop and start the ride. Serves him right. Now, many, many years later I have to becareful how I watch the kids going on the Merry-Go-Round.

Rule No. 2: Always bring my own vehicle. Going to an amusement park is fun, but it’s even better when there is a group of friends. And there was a group of us, 6 or 7, one person had a license, we were probably 15/16. Tammy (my bff) and I decided to distance ourselves from the group. I could stand on principle and say they were drinking, which they were, but it wasn’t really that we were scared to ride with them but that we didn’t want to get kicked out of the park with them. Now how’s that for smart. So their we were at the end of the evening, hadn’t seen anyone we know for the last 2-3 hrs, security is telling us we have to go and we can’t find anyone. They must already be at the car, nope the car is gone. My bff and I got left at Darien Lake. What would have been smart then was to call someone, but then they would have gotten in trouble. DUH, you think. Not us, we clearly were not thinking.

So, sticking to my two rules, off I took the kids to Darine Lake and we had a great time.

Water rides and roller coasters are my thing.  That is Tommy, Abby & Serena on this big water slide.  It's not a close up on purpose, lol.  Wow, you should have seen Tommy's eyes at the beginning of it.

Grandma, was the cool one of the day who went on all those rides I couldn't.

Of course I could do the ferris wheel, it's goes three cars up at a time then stops.

Did I mention, I always get my money's worth.  We didn't leave until 10:00 PM, I took the girls on the Viper at 9:45.  That was great, no lines.  Serena actually giggled loudly on the ride and Abby screamed.  But said they loved it, they're hooked.

We had a good day.

In God's Love, sheila