SUMMERTIME FUN

While living in southern California friends and family would often come down from up north for a visit. If they had children with them, Disneyland was a must. I never went there. It is too vast a place and I don't do well in that kind of a space. It is too busy and overwhelming.

However, I can venture into the smaller parks. Ones about the size of a state fair are very suitable to my temperament. Well, a friend and her son were down from Vancouver. They had done the mandatory Disneyland already and this day we went to a 'put put' golf course. E's son was may be 13. He wanted to go on this roller coaster. It had the steepest drop he had ever seen. Nobody wanted to go with him and his mom didn't want him to go alone. So, I always liked the coaster when I was a kid. I volunteered.

We get the front seat. If you are going to ride on the steepest drop you've ever seen you want to be in the front, eh. We are strapped in. The carriage slowly hauls itself up the first incline. Clickity clack, clickity clack. However, I'm not thinking of trains here as we rise. I have come to my senses and have started getting nervous. My father had had a quadruple by pass. My brother has had one as well. My sister has had a bypass too, although hers was not the mega quadruple type. It dawns on me that perhaps I should not be here. I am over the hump in the aging department. I am about to go over the hump on the first rise of this roller coaster. We are cresting the top and the carriage slowly starts pointing us at the horizon, more rapidly now it is starting to point earthward. I swear, we were then into g-force speeds and were as close to vertical descent as I could ever imagine.........we........ SCREAM!!!!!

It was wonderful.

Hot fun in the summertime. It's the very best thing about summer. It is not my favourite season. The other 3 take higher rank on the like scale, but amusement parks (and drive-in movie theaters) make summer all right!