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fbhjrLabor day weekend of 1972, my friend Kevin and I went to the amusement park
near my aunt’s cottage.
All summer long I had wanted to go on a ride called “The Orbit”. It had
rocket like pods attached to either end of a long beam and swung the pods
around up in the air.
It was 1972, the Apollo missions were still going on, and I very much
wanted to be an astronaut. I thought this riding in the pods on the end of
a big beam swinging you around would be a good way to practice. At eight,
it was as close as I expected to get any time soon.
The ride had one of those “you must be this tall to go on this ride” signs
in front of it. Every time we went to the park that summer, I stood next
to the sign.
Finally, on that last weekend, I was just tall enough.
Kevin and I got into a pod and we were off!
As the pod lifted us up in the air, it knocked me into the side of the pod
and my head hit the wall fairly hard. The cut that gave me was not very
large, but began to bleed as head wounds do.
The while sweatshirt I had been wearing quickly started to turn red.
As we spun around and around, the blood began to cover the whole inside of
the pod. It got on the hand grip in front of our seat (no seatbelts, only
a bar to hang on to as you went around) and we began having trouble keeping
our grip as our hands slid back and forth on my blood.
We screamed. A lot.
I was eight. Kevin had just turned nine.
Neither of us had ever seen that much blood before. Both of us were sure I
was bleeding to death.
We shouted for the ride to stop. We screamed that I was dying.
The ride went on.
According to my mother and aunt on the ground, our yells and screams did
not sound different from anyone else on the ride or the other amusement
rides at the park.
My mother shouted up to me “it’s OK to throw up if you need to!”
When the ride finally came to an end, we both got out of the pod, crying
and covered in blood.
The horror Kevin and I had been feeling for the previous few minutes hit
the folks waiting in line when they saw us.
Not sure of what had happened to us, the police on site were called because
of us being covered in blood.
The police man didn’t think we had time to wait for an ambulance and had my
mother take us to the hospital in her car as he went ahead of us with the
siren to get people out of the way.
It turned out I needed three stitches for the 1/4” cut on the upper left
side of my head. And, I got to start 4th grade two days later with a huge
bandage on the back of my head.
When we went back to the amusement park the next year, they had taken that
ride away because it was “too dangerous. People got hurt on it.” I was
told it wasn’t my covering it in blood that led to that decision, but that
the operator actually lost a finger to it sometime later. So, it could
have gone worse for me.
I remember swinging around in that pod, watching the lights of the park and
faces of people swing by us as we tried to hold onto that bar covered in my
blood. I remember screaming for my mother and aunt to put a stop to it and
them not hearing or understanding I was in trouble.
I remember the looks on everyone’s faces when we finally stopped and
climbed out covered in blood.
Its more than 39 years ago now. I haven’t seen Kevin for 37 of those 39
years.
I wonder what happened to him after he moved away?
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 03:23 pm (UTC)Kevin was my best friend in 3rd and 4th grade. Then, his family moved away and I only saw him a couple of times after that.
I've wondered what happened to him, where his life led him and where he is now.
And, that reminded me of this.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 05:02 pm (UTC)Few give details of how old they are, or where they lived in 73.
And, I am not wiling to go person to person asking.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 03:54 pm (UTC)That is messed up.
have you thought about tracking him down on FB or LinkedIn?
no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 05:00 pm (UTC)Freud would have a field day.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 05:05 pm (UTC)But, I've had a fondness for hats since then..
no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 05:07 pm (UTC)as other have opined, that must have been pretty frightening.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-28 01:12 am (UTC)