The Trouble With...(Pt. 10)

No amusement park has truly been experienced if you haven’t loved your Ferris Wheel. That was my feeling until our summer vacation of 1992. The world was different then. Let me take you back to a time when CDs outsold audiocassettes for the first time in history, Sega Genesis established the first commercial worldwide videogame release known as “Sonic 2sday,” The Prince and Princess of Wales announced their separation, and the World Wide Web had just begun. Let’s not kid ourselves, mobile phones were not readily available. If you were lucky enough to be a private investigator in Hawaii, or employed by a guy named Charlie, you might have one bulky looking console type phone in your fancy car. Otherwise, you have to wait another 10 years like everyone else.

On the other hand, television and video games were on their way up! Remote controls made life so easy. Controllers for games were definitely not wireless. But, you could get cords with extensions, so you could lounge on the couch instead of sitting on the floor! Hooray for comfort! Cables were always strewn across the living room. It was always a trap.

Here’s a nifty tidbit of information that may surprise you. Ohio is not just the “Heart of it all,” Ohio HAS it all. From the moment I met Jamie, I was a little annoying to him because I kept saying, “We’ve got one like that in Ohio.” Sometimes the words were similar, sometimes I would say that Ohio’s was better, sometimes I would say that Ohio had something and the place we happened to be did not. Yeah, Ohio is kind of like that. One of the many things that a lot of Ohioans actually don’t get to see, or maybe take for granted, is the marvelous Ohio River.

I grew up on the Ohio River. It was a common sight to see barges moving goods up and down river. It was not unusual to drive into West Virginia for lunch, or to go to the community center to swim. The New Cumberland Locks and Dam are a few miles from my hometown, Toronto. It was not something I ever considered to be special. I didn’t think it was extra-ordinary. My whole life just seemed like…typical life. Then I did what every teenager wants to do as soon as they graduate: I ran away from typical. What I found out was how a-typical my life had been.

My summers were spent camping at Lake Austin, deep in a valley, lost beneath canopies of lush greens, whispering winds, choirs of colorful winged creatures, and gently babbling brooks. The foothills of the Appalachians reached into the Ohio Valley and caressed her south-eastern quadrant as if to say, “I give you all of the beauty and treasures here. This is enough.” Of course, we made a complete mess of things, so let’s move along. I digress.

The vacation started like all Abel Family Vacations: rainy. We arrived at our first stop, Pere Marquette State Park, where we had booked a cabin for the night. Upon our arrival, it was discovered that our TV did not have a remote control. Truthfully, it was an older TV. It had a dial knob for stations, and a second dial for UHF/VHF. I don’t think it could have had a remote programmed to it. Justin, a few months shy of 7, and Stephanie, 4, became distressed. How would we ever get the TV to work? I walked to the TV and turned it on. Justin’s mind exploded. “Whoa! How did you do that?”

“What are you talking about?” I said.

“How did you make it work?” he asked, still in shock.

Jamie and I looked at each other, thinking surely this is not how the world is changing. Has it been so long that children do not know how the TV actually works? I motioned the kids over to it. I showed them the power button. I showed them the dial for changing the stations. Then I sat on the bed.

Justin said, “Look Dad! You change the stations right on the TV! This is so cool!”

We had a remote for the rest of our stay. We called our remote "Spud."

As it turned out, there was very little to watch. Who wants to watch TV when you are on vacation, anyway?! We headed to the lodge and discovered the biggest chessboard we had ever seen! Perfect for our first rainy vacation day.

The second day started like all Abel Family Vacations: frantic. It’s mom against the masses. Get up! Get up! Let’s go! We are on a schedule. We have to go, go, go. Get up! Get your stuff out to the car. Where are your shoes? Did you get your bunny? Don’t forget to brush. Socks first. Where did you get that? What is that? Nevermind. Did you even try to brush your hair? Have you looked in a mirror? Double check the bathroom. Stephanie! I said "SHOES"! Forget it. How did we ever get it together?

Finally, on our way. We decided to cross the Mighty Mississippi by ferry. As I recall, the ferry can only take one car across at a time. Passengers are required to stay in their cars. The fun is that you do get that ‘Tom Sawyer-we’re-on-a-raft-in-the-river’ feeling. I remember thinking it may flip and we’re going to lose everything. Never-the-less, we were super excited about it, and we were trying to get the kids excited about it.

There comes a time when you must give up. This was our moment. Trying to coax Justin out of his book about Tom Sawyer was pointless. He would much rather have read about it. He looked up and out of the window one time. This happened because I said the car was in the river. He thought I meant in the river and was disappointed that he misunderstood. Stephanie had been sleeping. This is always a problem. There was nothing she loved more than sleep. She fussed, and she whined, and she complained, until she finally sat up and looked out the window.

“Look! It’s the Mississippi!” I told both kids. “Just look at it.”

“Aargh!” Stephanie said, sitting up, “I already SEEN one of those!”

She immediately put her head back down to go back to sleep.

Jamie and I took it all in and wondered what she meant. From the backseat, Justin told us, “You know, over by Nammy’s.” (If I have not mentioned this before, you should know that Nammy is my Mother. It was what Justin called her from the time he began talking. So mote it be.) Well, there it is. Jamie shot me a look. Of course, we have one of these in Ohio. Of course, my 4-year-old already knows it. And of course, she is already telling Jamie about it. Now that I am thinking about it, she had already been to quite a few amusement parks by this time, too. Moving on, our job was to get on the road and arrive at Six Flags Great America.

Ferris Wheels are a pleasant and quiet way for parents to sit back with the kids and take a look around the amusement park. They are a nice distraction for the kids because they appear to be a “roller coaster,” when in reality they are a “time out.” I don’t make these things up. I live in this alternate universe where I take the calm-before-the-storm whenever I can. If my kids see a Ferris Wheel or a Merry-go-round and get excited to ride it, I’m the first mom in line! It is my opportunity to relax. The Ferris Wheel at this Six Flags is not that kind of ride.

Let me introduce you to Colossus, The Big Wheel. Colossus is the name given by the locals. She is a 150-foot tall Ferris Wheel. She is 165 feet in diameter, weighs 180 tons and has a maximum capacity of 320 people. She turns at a rate of 1½ revolutions per minute which equates to 10 mph. Colossus is lit by 2200 lights which displays a 24-pattern performance with a starburst finale. The seats are cages. The cages are fastened from the outside. Ladies and gentlemen, the cages are fastened on the outside. Stephanie and I love our roller-coasters. This will not change. Jamie never misses a photo op. This will not change.

It was the end of a long day at Six Flags. I know you can appreciate how exhausted parents are after chasing and carrying two young kids around an amusement park all day. It was “time out” for us. We decided to see the lights in the park from Colossus, this magnificent Ferris Wheel. We crawled into the cage and set our bags down. There was so much room! On crowded days, we would not have had the car to ourselves. We moved a couple of spots and people got off and more got on.

Then it began.

Stephanie got a second wind. She stood up on the seat. She turned around and grabbed the cage. She watched as another car unloaded and loaded. We were getting higher. Justin moved closer to me.

I still remember thinking that Justin was just cuddling up to me. Somehow, I missed all of the signs. There is no way out of this situation once you are in it. You have to ride it straight through hell and come out on the other side. The only thing to do is ease the suffering in the moment. Then laugh about it later! Colossus started to go full speed. Stephanie had already begun swinging the car. Once she got it rocking, the wind and momentum from the spinning wheel blew her feet out from under her. She was swaying in the wind! Justin started screaming.

“Mom, make her stop!” he cried. My eyes and head darting back and forth between children. “Steph, get down! Spud, just hold on to me. We will be done soon."

I tried to pull him closer to me, but he slid down under the seat. He curled into a ball behind my legs. He howled and cried most of the ride for her to stop. Jamie tried to catch her, but he couldn’t pry her little fingers from the cage wall. If he got one free, she grabbed ahold with the other. She was loving every minute of it. She thought Justin was screaming with her. Jamie and I were laughing at them and at each other. She was having the time of her life. He was having a panic attack. There was no middle ground and nothing we could do. Jamie did try to take a couple of pictures. Note: you never knew what your pictures would look like until you got them developed.

We got out. I never forced Justin onto a “high” ride again. It became something more than that one incident. We all are very aware of phobias, stressors, insecurities, and any one of a hundred other things now. And just because you face your fear doesn’t mean you are not going to continue to fear it. It will still be there waiting for you. If you’re truly lucky, you can toss that fear into a cage on Colossus, start swinging like there’s no tomorrow, and shake that fear all the way to laughter.