Today, I read an amusing Facebook status update by my friend Boo, who said.. “Pikaboo Had a GREAT day with WONDERFUL friends at the PNE… & discovered that she will say yes to rides that she SWORE she wouldn’t go on.. if a 13 yr old random girl comes up and asks her to…. HUH!?!”
And I was reminded of a story that makes me giggle, but it was too long to fit into the little comment box. And so I write it here.
So there’s this time I went to Playland with my mom, step-father & sister. It was a few years ago, Carol Ann was probably 4 or 5 — too little to be into the Coaster. Me? I love roller coasters, The Coaster being one of the best of the bunch. So, Mom was going to go on it with me, while CA & Ken watched.
Consider my mother: about 50 years old. Short grey hair, reading glasses, respectable looking professional lady, the whole nine yards. Also, a lover of theme parks — went to Disneyland on her first honeymoon while pregnant with me. You know all the signs that say “Do not ride if pregnant”? She went on them. This may explain me a bit about me.
So we get in line, and there are two little boys in line behind us — probably about 10 years old. And the boys look at my mom, and say … “You know… this ride goes really fast.” “Uh huh.” Mom replies. “Like, super fast. Up a big hill, and around corners, and…” “Yeah… so?” This continues on for a while. I pipe in with, “You know she’s been riding this thing since she was your age, right?” (Not totally accurate as they lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere until my mother was in her teens, but close to true — the Coaster opened up when she was about a year old, so it was totally possible.)
They look shocked and shut the hell up. We got on the ride and giggled madly at the two young whippersnappers and their attempts at “saving” Mom from the SCARY SCARY RIDE.
Two or three years later and Carol Ann is tall enough at 7.5 years. She has been on the PNE Rollercoaster…twice. Loved it. Ken and I only went once because we didn’t have a ride pass.
Still “got it”, though.