The Fourth of July starts prime family vacation time, which inevitably includes trips to amusement parks. Feel free to share your favorites and the worst, the best of times and worst of times, favorite rides and any memorable moments that you dare make public regarding your visits to amusement parks.
Annual passes to Disney World, and the new Guardians ride is about as fast as Disney gets. We generally don't go during the summer, or on weekends. If you'd like more tips about DW, let me know and I'll ask Mrs. FromWA. She's a pro at this stuff.
The start of the '70's and the last two years of high school. Absolutely nothing to do in rainy, podunk Portland on a weekend evening during the school year but hopefully find some cheap beer and/or some "sticks and seeds Mexi-weed". Properly fortified, we would then wander Oaks Park, harassing skater boys at the roller rink and hitting on their dates. If we had planned ahead, we'd get enough of us there to take over the bumper cars for an hour or so on especially slow nights. The ride operator always got tipped well, whether it was in cash, beer or weed or combination of same. Like I said, PDX was pretty lame 50+ years ago. Belmont Park in San Diego served pretty much the same purpose when I was in the navy, only the roller coaster was the draw. And I probably shouldn't mention huffing down doobies while riding the gondolas high (wink, wink) above the crowds at Disneyland as a young sailor. The military got in so very cheaply back then............
When we go to Disneyland we usually go Veterans day weekend. Usually the start of the weekend is Halloween and by the end they have converted the park to Christmas and it is usually not busy. With our oldest in college now we are going to go a week or two before Christmas this year. Never been that time of year before.
Grew up 10 minutes from Disneyland in the 60s and 70s. Some good memories ... - Watching the fireworks from out backyard. - Getting lost at a birthday party one night when I was about 8. I recall being put in a "pen" in some storefront on Main Street with a bunch of other crying lost kids. My dad drove down and saved me, but he never again spoke to the dad who lost me. - As a teen, going up in he buckets and spitting on people below. - Later, making out on Monsanto. - Grad night from high school at Disneyland was a blast. - When my mom was older, we took her and my little kids there for a day. We put mom in a wheelchair because it was just easier, Turns out, we got to go to the front of every line because of my mom in the wheelchair. At the end of the day, I drove mom back home, and then went back to meet my bro, wife, and kids at the park. We put one of my kids in the wheelchair and went to the front of every line for every ride on that busy Saturday night! Best. Night. Ever!! What did Maude say in Harold and Maude? "You can't be too good, it spoils all the fun!" Good times, good times.
My dad told me some good stories about his shenanigans in amusement parks and at the carnival. He was a carny. My mom was too. That's where they met. My mom ran the zamps (kiddie rides) and my dad ran major or spectacular rides. He was running a ride called the twister. It was a flat ride, didn't go in the air, so it appeared perhaps harmless, especially when it wasn't running. One night a cop came by and stopped to talk to my dad. He, said,"you have a nice kiddie ride here." My dad asked if him he if he wanted to ride it for free. The cop said, he was on duty but he'd come back later. He came back later and my dad put him in the seat with the most kick. He turned it on and gave this cop the ride of his life. Afterwards, the cop unsteady as hell, was walking passed him to exit, and my dad said, "So, how did you like my kiddie ride." The cop gave a thumbs up, stepped off the ride, and barfed. My dad also has some good stories about Disneyland. He never worked there. He and his friends snuck in back in the seventies. They climbed a fence in the back to get in. They found themselves across the river from the riverboat ride, by the cabins. They saw the riverboat coming and laid down in the grass. My dad looked over, saw his friends raccoon hat, and got an hilarious idea. He took it off his friends head and put it on, then as the boat neared, he rose out of the grass, like an animatronic. He waved mechanically at the people on the boat with a smile. They all took out their cameras and began snapping pictures. So somewhere, there are tourists with old pictures of their visit to Disney, and among them are pictures of my dad, who they might think to this day is the most lifelike animatronic they have ever seen. He and his friends pulled another similar prank in Disneyland. This one at the old milk truck that sits along the walk. They waited for a good moment then took their places in and around the milk truck and froze. One at the steering wheel, one standing at the crank, and one sitting in the passenger seat. When people came by, the one at the crank would suddenly come alive and turn the crank very mechanically. The one at the wheel would suddenly vibrate and slightly move the wheel as though they were driving, and passenger would suddenly turn and wave mechanically. So, again people have pictures from their vacation there of some mechanical milk men who are not mechanical.
LaSalle. But I grew up on SE 49th two blocks south of Powell. But the old family homestead/heating business was kitty corner to Cleveland's football field......
That's such a PC way of saying your family owned the Safari strip club. Heating? Those girls weren't that hot.
Oh God could I tell you stories about that place! It was originally the Palm Garden and was there for years and years before it morphed into the Safari Club. There was a narrow "alley" between the east side of the Palm Garden and the giant fire trap (known as "the shop") my dad and his six siblings grew up in. The stories about the Palm Garden were legion. Whenever we had gone somewhere for the evening when I was a kid, my dad would stop at the shop to make sure no one had broken in or otherwise caused any damage (the Palm Garden clientele could get pretty shady). The side door of the Palm Garden would be open (for ventilation), the cigarette smoke (and alcohol fumes) would be rolling out in clouds, the band would be grinding it out and my brothers and I would be hanging over the front seat of the car trying to get a peek at the jiggly go go dancers in their fringed mini skirts and Nancy Sinatra boots. All kinds of crazy shit went on there....and the cops usually turned a blind eye because so many were regular customers. They even had a bowling team for a couple of decades. My uncle was on the team and I inherited his (absolutely awesome) shirt. Unfortunately I wore it until it disintegrated. It would be worth a small fortune today. I did make it into the Safari Club once (long story) and it was the creepiest damn place I'd ever been to. I couldn't get outta there fast enough. So no, we didn't own the Safari Club.......but we did own the land the new affordable housing is being built on, along with the Motel 6 property once upon a time ago.....
I remember one summer when my family and I hit the road for a theme park adventure. The best part? Sharing laughs on the wildest rides and savoring those delicious park treats. Of course, there were some not-so-great moments too, like getting lost in the maze of roller coasters! But hey, it's all part of the fun. Speaking of theme parks in the US, there's something magical about the way they bring people together for thrilling experiences.
My uncle always made a trip out here every two weeks from New York in the summer during the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s before moving here after retirement. We went to Oaks Park one summer and he and my sister went on the Monster Mouse coaster a year or two before it was replaced with Looping Thunder. They made their ascent, and after coming around the curve at the top and approaching the drop, the entire midway could hear: "OH SHIT!" I'll never forget that.
One of the most entertaining family vacations we've had was at the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta Ca. It had something for everyone - https://www.wem.ca/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb
The good: Rides are really fun The Bad: The lines to rides can be very long The Ugly: I highly doubt most county/state rides have been inspected recently for safety the last one is purely speculation but I doubt it’s far off from the truth……
Amusement parks are a staple for us too. One of our favorite memories was at what we consider the best amusement park in the US. We were all queuing up for this epic roller coaster, hearts pounding with excitement. As we plummeted down that first drop, screams turned into laughter, and for a moment, all worries melted away. It's moments like these that make the worst of times fade into distant memories.
