Amy (cincy's mom) Trains Next Generation Race Car Drivers

[Ginger's Mom]

What a fun day! I just couldn't help smiling while looking at all of those happy faces. But, yeah, I would have stayed in the kiddie section, too.

[Cinder & Smoke]

I would have stayed in the kiddie section, too.

I found out, 'many years ago' ... that the "kiddie Rides" can be a bit 'tense' for
the old pharts ... not to mention the "adult" rides!

A buncha the Fire Gang went to Idora Park - Youngstown, Ohio's once famous
(and now mostly burned down) amusement park - home of the World-Class Wild Cat Coaster
and it's older (1910) lil brother, the milder Jack Rabbit. A lot, including the kids, hopped a ride or two
on the 'mild ride' on the Jack Rabbit ... Piece-a-Cake, said I after 3 spins around the block.

OK, sez Colleen, one of the feisty ones (and a Volunteer Dispatcher) ...
let's do the Wild Cat!
There were no other 'takers' ... by the time we'd inched our way to a FRONT seat in our train ...
I was totally convinced I shudda stayed home!

But WOW!

I decided on one hand on my glasses and one with a death-grip on the safety bar ---
Colleen was on her own! I managed to keep an eye open for most of the gut-wrenching ride ...
and we both managed to stay mostly 'in" the car ...

It took about three hours of ribbing, but The Gang finally managed to talk us into a
'repeat ride' before we left ... I was pretty sure TWO was quite enough when we
got off the second time ... I had a lotta trouble making the old knees work right!

Kiddie Rides?

It really WASN'T a Kiddie Ride, but Colleen's pre-teen son insisted he wanted to ride
the **huge** "spinning airplane ride" --- another famous Idora ride.
Two-person "airplanes" hanging from dog chains from the top of a WAY-too-high round tower ...
that began spinning at an ever increasing speed ...
with centrifugal force flinging the lil airplanes UP and out!

Way too late I decide I'd been connad by both Colleen (*I'm* not ridin that THING;
and niether is HE without an adult!)
(Wes: PaLEEZE, Unka Phred!?) ~ AND the Lil Kid ...

Too Late (again) I realized the KID grabbed the outer seat - which became the
"upper" seat after we took off; I had the inside seat - which became the
"LOWER" seat ... the view off my left wing-tip was STRAIGHT DOWN (a hundred feet)
to the ground *whizzing* around at a zillion mph!
Just *PEACHY*!

And we weren't half way *UP* to crusing altitude when my young pilot announced
that "He'd really like to get OFF, NOW!"

I said (with my voice cracking) that it might be best to wait till we "landed" ...
praying that our chains wouldn't break and send us off for a crash landing
at the airport - 25 miles away!

After THAT ride, the ole Bumper Cars seemed really mild!



I said it might be best to wait till we "landed".