mom and amusement rides

Today was the one year mark of my mom's passing. I've thought about her a lot lately.

Over the past year, I've thought a lot about the things that my mom taught me (or tried to teach me - I wasn't her most receptive pupil at times). My mom had strong opinions on topics that ranged from health food to Fabian Socialism to salicylates to immigration to SIDS to spirituality. But over the past few weeks, I've continually thought about one specific experience where my mom taught me something very unusual (especially unusual for her, that is).

My mom wasn't really into theme parks or roller coasters. She didn't really enjoy thrill-seeking rides or understand their appeal. And, as a consequence, my family didn't visit a lot of amusement parks when I was young. About eleven years ago, though, my family went to visit a little fairy tale park called Enchanted Forest. My dad ended up buying tickets for the Big Timber Log Ride, which includes a really steep drop at one point (similar to Splash Mountain at Disneyland).

I've always been a little nervous about going on thrilling amusement rides, mostly because I don't have a lot of experience on them. I could tell that my mom was reluctant to go on the ride as well, but we had to go since Dad had already bought tickets. So, Mom and I hesitantly sat down in our log car together. As we started the steep ascent before the final drop, my mom said, "When we go down, stomp your feet against the bottom of the car and scream as loud as you can. That will make your stomach feel less queasy."

So...that's what we did! We stomped and screamed like madwomen! Ha ha! You have to understand, that this was very uncharacteristic of my mother. She didn't like to draw attention to herself, so screaming at the top of her lungs wasn't something that she did. And to be stomping her feet while screaming at the same time? Ha! It was too funny. You might be able to tell that we are laughing in the picture above. I think we were partly laughing out of relief that the ride was over, but I also thought it was hilarious that my mom acted that way on the ride. I never saw her do anything like that since.

I feel kind of privileged to have that experience with my mom; I don't think any of my siblings got instructed on how one should act on a thrill ride. (Though I suppose I could be wrong - she did try to give us fair and equal instruction on most topics). Thanks for the tip, Mom. I'll be sure to pass that information along to my son, if we end up on an amusement ride together.

I love you, Mom.