WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE?

[Tony Page]

What was your favorite amusement park ride

As a child, my favorite ride was the boomerang. My family would take a "bus ride" outing to Lake Hopatcong in NJ with other families and friends. They had a large amusement area, one of the rides was the boomerang. You sat in the circular tub that was attached to arms that's spun you around, as well as each tub spun individually. You started by sitting but by the time you were through you are on the floor of the tub, at some point the arm released you and you were thrown freewheeling right into a tunnel shaped like a boomerang as you went through this tunnel you're banging off the walls until you come out the other end. This ride flung you around like you were a rag doll, I remember my cousin came out of the ride her lip was all bloody. I loved this ride, I went on as often as I could. The challenge was not to fall to the bottom of the tub to hang on to your seat. I was never able to do that.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I never went to an amusement park when I was a kid, so when my family and I were in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on vacation and they wanted to go to go to one, so Cindy looked up what parks were nearby, and she chose Castle Fun Park in Abbotsford, BC, since were planning to go that way anyway. We were going to my kind of amusement park, Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.

So we went to Abbotsford, got a suite for two days, and took the kids Castle Fun Park the next day. Naturally I got sick from something I ate and waited for them in the car. Thus, no rides for me, but the kids had fun. They wanted to go back the next day and I said "Nope. Now it's our turn."

Since I had slept in the car most of that day, we headed out really early. I was able to drive from Abbotsford to Revelstoke, then Cindy drove to Banff, and we got there before 4:00p. We had dinner in the town of Banff after doing some sightseeing. After laughing hard at hotel prices there, she drove to Calgary.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Spokane used to have an old park called Natatorium Park, always known as Nat Park. It had an old wooden rollercoaster that overlooked a cliff and down to the Spokane River, far below the roller coaster; but the main attraction (at least for me) was the magnificent carrousel. It was a Looff Carrousel that had been made in 1909, so it was already old when I used to ride it in the 1950’s.

My mother would sometimes take us there after we had been in Spokane for the day, and I loved riding the Carrousel and listening to the calliope music. I think this started my love of the big organ music sound.
I sometimes rode on the roller coaster also, but the carrousel was my definite favorite. Eventually, the park closed, the carrousel was put in storage, and then restored and put into Riverfront Park in time for the 1974 World’s Fair at Spokane.