Last night I went to the California's Great America "Haunt" with my wife and daughter. It's a special halloween event for Great America. It's funny to call it "California's Great America," those us who have been around for a while know it under lots of names. It was Marriott's Great America, then Paramount's Great America, and maybe something else as well when I wasn't paying attention. I liked when Paramount had it and fill it with the movie-themed rides, decorations and music, too bad they decided that they weren't making enough money and pulled out. The place is now that much more dull.
I wasn't really sure that I wanted to go, but my wife and daughter were going and I'd never been, so I thought I'd give it a try. I don't like that place all the much these days. We were went on a Sunday, and I found out that day the they'd decided to arrive there at 2 pm and stay till midnight. Not what I'd signed up for! Whatever, Ok and off we went.
When the park first opened, I was as excited as any other kid. Well, I wasn't exactly a kid. Since it opened in 1976, when I was two years out of high school. I seem to have memories of going with my brother Mark, but that can't be right because he was long gone at that point. I must have gone with friends, but I remember who. I probably went with church groups sometimes, and my high school buddies at others. But I have no clear idea which ones. Anyway, like mosts guys that age, parks were all about the rides and shows were just a waste of precious time.
In a way, I don't really know why I wanted to go on the rides. They scared me. Some, like The Edge, I just couldn't take and didn't go on for years. I remember when I went to Disneyland for the first time and rode the Matterhorn, I left serious dents in the safety bar from my hands gripping so tightly. That was about the time that I figured out that is was less scary if I kept my eyes open: I could see what was coming. Apparently I had a real fear of falling, that I'd had since...well, ever.
When I was about five, I was having a series of falling dreams that woke me up. I only remember the last one of the series. In that dream, I was falling in grayness toward something awful, and I realized that if I closed my eyes I'd be safe. I was really scared to close my eyes, but I did it anyway and, as I held them closed, the falling feeling faded away and I found myself comfortably on the ground. I never had a falling dream again. That's a recurring theme in my life, control. Once I feel that I have an understanding of something, I had control and I was safe. I real life though, closing my eyes never really worked out all the well.
Despite my fear, I was always excited to go to parks and ride the rides, no matter what. Perhaps it was a way of testing my limits, but it was always really cool. And all the other guys did it too, so there's that.
Now, many years later, something has happened. I don't know when it happened, but it really hit me a few years back when my youngest daughter talked me into going on The Drop Zone.That's a ride where they drop you, straight down, around 200 feet. I discovered that I actually enjoyed the feeling of weightlessness! At that point it really clicked that none of the rides scared me any more, and the only things that kept them from being totally fun were the way many of them jerked and slammed you around and the fact that they now tend to make me sick. The jerking and slamming just plain hurts. I know the ride manufactures say that the roughness of the rides makes them more exiting, but I really care. I used to tense up on rides because I was scared, now I have to tense up to protect myself from bruises and sprains. I remember one ride at Universal Studios where my head was slammed into the side of the car whenever it jerked left. I spend most of the ride with my hands holding my head trying to keep it from hitting the car. I don't know what the designers were thinking.
Yeah, I now get nauseous on most rides. Not fun. I figured that was just what happened when you got older, but it occurred to me last night that maybe that's not necessarily true. Maybe it's not inevitable. When I was riding Top Gun I was reminded of how they teach fighter pilots to resist blacking out from high G forces and maybe a variation on that could help raise my tolerance for nausea. Maybe the way you tense up when you're young helps, in some way, and when you relax as you get older, you lose that protection. I played with that idea on the ride, but since it was the last ride of the day my head was already swimming, so I don't know if I improved things or not.
Wow, this has gone on a lot longer that I thought it might and I need to wrap up now. And I never even got to my main point. I'll pick this up tomorrow.
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