Fox and Squirrel Pt. 4

If you're wondering what the title of this memoir refers to, allow me to enlighten you. The fox is Acacia's totem animal, and the squirrel is mine. I call her 'Foxy' now and again, and my Abenaki name is Mikoa, which means squirrel. Now, on to the story...

Part 4: Slightly Queasy and Frazzled
We survived The Sasquatch, quite impressed with ourselves for having the balls to ride the very thing we were afraid of. Acacia's reasoning had made sense. It was better get it over with right away, than put it off and give ourselves time to change our minds. We rode what we were afraid of the most, and started our day with a bang.

We briefly debated what to ride next, and somehow it was decided that we would ride The Boomerang Coast to Coast roller coaster. At this point in my life, I'd only ridden this coaster twice, once when I was ten, and again when I was twelve. Both experiences had been rather traumatizing for me, and as a result, my opinion of the ride had been a low one for many years, bolstered by the fact that a kid had become paralyzed after falling out of the ride. But now I realized, that if I could ride The Sasquatch and survive, then I could ride The Boomerang.
But before I rode anything else, I desperately needed to use a bathroom. So we wandered around Storytown, looking for a bathroom to use. We may even have wandered into the Fest Area (which looks like a classic carnival). As we searched, I took in the familiar sights, noticing that even with the new rides, the park looked very much the same as it ever was. Storytown was still very pretty, if not a little careworn. I also noticed that food and games were ridiculously expensive, much to my disgust.

After finding and using a bathroom (I'm sure you don't want to hear the details about that), we made our way back to the Boomerang. It was dreadfully hot, and terribly uncomfortable, but thankfully not as crowded as I'd thought it would be. While we walked, I noticed the Cinderella Coach ride. Standing in front of it, was Cinderella herself, trapped in her pretty blue gown. I think it was a prom dress, in a bright shade of blue, a hybrid of cyan and aqua. In hindsight, all this reminds me a lot of the book called The Dress Lodger, whose main character, named Gustine, is a potter's assistant by day, and a prostitute by night, decked out in a splendid blue gown provided by her landlord. Gustine spends her nights, exposed to inclement weather for hours at a time, waiting for customers to come and use her. Is the park employee not similar, in her beautiful blue gown, having to stand for hours in sweltering heat, waiting for park guests to come over and marvel at her beauty and ride in her coach? Boldly, I asked her if it was terribly hot in that gown, if surely she was not in some discomfort.

She stayed in character the whole time, replying in a sweet voice that it wasn't that bad (more acting I wonder?). We struck up a conversation with her, the girl never faltering in her smile and her princess voice, as we discussed the new ride, which she had heard you could view Lake George from if you sat just right. Yes, she is like Gustine, in a way. She must never show her discomfort or displeasure in her position. Being the Great Escape Cinderella can't be that bad can it now? You get to dress up, you look pretty and you certainly don't have to clean vomit. But unlike Gustine, I don't think she has to have sex with nameless, faceless men every night. I may have mentioned this before, I may even have mentioned it to Acacia that day, that throughout the years while the park Cinderella may change- be a different girl, in a different dress (though it's always a blue one), with different glass slippers, she is essentially the same girl. The park always casts a girl with light colored hair, either a light brown or a blond. Her eyes are probably light as well, and she is usually thin.

After leaving Cinderella, we finally made it to the Boomerang. When I first rode it ten years ago, it had been painted teal, a soothing color that was slowly fading with time. Someone must have decided that this blue-green hue belied the fierceness of the ride, for now it was painted red and yellow. Shiny and new. It looked much better. The Boomerang, as far as coasters go, is pretty small, but its power lies in the fact that it goes backwards and forwards, the origin of its name. It drags you backwards up a steep slope, launches you downhill, and then you go through some loops and twists. Then you're dragged up another slope, parallel to the first and then you repeat the ride in reverse.

The line was not as long as it could have been, but it was still a bitch to wait in. It was hot, as I mentioned, so hot that my denim Capris were sticking to my body. I was starting to feel fussy, the way a small child would feel. Acacia, bless her sweet soul, put her arms around me and spoke soothingly to me. She told me we would go to the water park after the Boomerang, which sounded really really good. The only catch, was that she left her bathing suit in the car and we would have to go back and get it. When I started to fret about that, she began to soothe me all over again. She is really very good at that, soothing me when I panic.

Whenever I'm in line for something, I people watch. It is a habit of mine. I noticed the women behind us were incredibly dressed up for an amusement park.Wearing nice clothes, makeup, gold jewelry and painful looking sandals. I don't get it, why do you need to be so dressed up for The Great Escape? Sure, I had earrings on and some nifty accessories, but I was wearing comfy clothes and sneakers and no makeup. I'm on my feet all day, and the makeup will just get washed off in the water park. I stared at their feet, wondering how they could walk around in dressy sandals all day. Practice, probably.

Soon enough it was our turn to get on the roller coaster. We put our glasses in our bags, and got in a car somewhere in the middle of the train. We pulled the shoulder restraints down, and I made sure that mine was pushed down as tightly as it could go; I wasn't taking any chances. I was incredibly nervous, more than nervous, downright terrified. But there was no turning back, I would not chicken out.
The cars began to move up the hill slowly. I tried to remain calm, but soon found my panic setting in. To keep myself calm, I began to sing to myself, an old Pagan song my mother had sung to me as a child. I wondered if it made the people behind me uncomfortable.

The cars had stopped moving, and we were now in that terrible pause right before the roller coaster drops. I was terrified. I felt dizzy, and because of the angle of the slope, I felt like I was slipping out of my seat. This was the worst part, being stuck high in the air, at the very top of the hill, not moving, choking on my fear. It was hot up there, and my vision was blurry without my glasses. I felt utterly helpless.

Finally the coaster dropped, speeding down the hill. My stomach dropped to my knees, and I screamed in fear and exhilaration. The cars rushed past the operating station, and went through one of the twists, turning us upside down. Then, it twisted again, swooped down and went through a loop, during which I screamed to Jesus. The whole thing was very quick and very exciting. It seems I had overcome my fear of the Boomerang after all!

Then the ride began it's trip up the second slope, to start it's backwards journey. This was a little less scary, because I couldn't see my ascent, only feel it. Then the cars dropped, and we repeated the ride, only backwards. It was a lot of fun going backwards, but I still found myself shouting "Holy Mary Mother of God!" at the top of my lungs, and reciting a few Catholic prayers, despite the fact that I'm Pagan.

The ride ended when it pulled itself halfway up the first hill, then settled back into the station slowly, in a manner that again, reminded me of death throes. It was over. The restraints released themselves, and we climbed out of the car,  I was slightly queasy and frazzled, but throughly entertained. We put our glasses back on, and walked away from the Boomerang. I felt like a champion. I had conquered the beast and won.

My First Trip to The Great Escape Part 2

Part 2: Shell-shocked and Amazed
Though slightly shaken by my experience on The Rainbow, I was game to try another ride. It was decided that we would go on The Boomerang Coast to Coast Roller Coaster. I don't remember how many of my group got in line, though I experienced some apprehension and almost chickened out.

It would be my first real roller coaster. Earlier that year, my uncle Russell and I rode a roller coaster simulator at an arcade. It was a pod that tilted and spun, while the riders watched a virtual roller coaster on the screen inside. I recall feeling traumatized from going upside down. But now as I stood in the relatively short line, I wasn't even thinking of the arcade simulator or the discomfort I had felt on it. I was only thinking of how much fun I would have on my first roller coaster. At one point I passed a trash can, and went to look in it out of curiosity.
"You don't wanna look in there" My aunt said. I wondered why. Was there vomit in there? It was a roller coaster, after all. What could be in there? I realize now, that there was more likely to be vomit in the trashcan near the ride exit, as opposed to being in the ride entrance.

As I waited in line, I listened to the screams of people already on the roller coaster. They blended into a mass chorus, unearthly and strange. Many voices became one, and that voice seemed oddly far away. The sound was quite surreal, I'd never heard a large group of people scream in unison, terror and exhilaration blending into a single expression. Would I scream like they were?
I was going to find out, for soon I found myself getting on the ride. I buckled in, lowered the shoulder restraint. My aunt said something to me, but I can't recall what it was.
Because the roller coaster goes backwards as well as forwards, instead of going uphill in the conventional way, the Boomerang gets pulled up the first hill backwards in order to be launched.
As it began to climb up the hill, I began to doubt getting on the ride. It was a lot higher than I imagined, and I found myself incredibly frightened. My body was slipping downward, and I grasped the handles on the restraint, trying to pull myself up. It was too late to change my mind though, for soon enough the cars were speeding downhill, after the grueling ascent. It was frighteningly fast and I regretted not taking off my glasses. Fearing I'd lose them, I wrestled my hand through one of the handlebars on the shoulder restraint, using my forearm to hold onto the restraint and my hand to hold onto my glasses.

After it had gone through two twists and a loop, it began to drag itself up the second hill, to prepare for the backwards half of the ride. As it did so, shell-shocked and amazed, I whispered "Mother" very softly. I thought I sounded quite like Daffy Duck when I did so.
It was worse going backwards. This time, I was aware of how weightless I was in the roller coaster, being thrown about like a rag doll, feeling like I was going to fall out of the coaster.
When it was over, I walked off the coaster shaking slightly, feeling slightly sour in the stomach. I wanted to go on something a little more gentle. So I chose the Grand Carousel as my next ride.

The carousel at the Great Escape was the most beautiful one I'd ever seen, at least at that point in my life. I've seen more beautiful since. There were fancy horses and animals, some sparkling in the summer sun. The blue-green horse with the mermaid's tail comes to mind. But I did not get a beautiful horse. I got an average horse, much to my chagrin, seeing as I was one of the last people to get on. I was also surprised that I had to buckle in, with a polyester strap that wrapped around the waist, attached to the pole the horse was skewered onto. This was new to me, I'd never had to buckle in on a merry-go-round before.

When I was little the carousel was my favorite ride. I rode them at the fair, at the Shelburne museum (theirs dates from the 1920's) and even rode the little cheesy ones in front of the grocery stores. I adored them. Even now, they still hold some fascination and nostalgia for me. But at ten, I'd found myself a little bored. On the horse next to me, sat a girl my age; I tried to engage her in conversation. I told her that today was my first trip to The Great Escape. Instead of being nice like I expected, she bragged, saying she'd come to the park hundreds of times. I thought she was terribly rude.

After I went on the merry-go-round, I decided to go on the Cinderella Coach ride, in the fairytale section of the park. This section had little houses, all from infamous nursery rhymes and fairy tales, most of which came from the original Storybook Land amusement park, which was built on the grounds where the Great Escape now stands. At the center of it all, was The Grand Carousel and to the left of that was The Cinderella ride, which was no more than a pumpkin shaped coach lead by two ponies. But, in the coach, was Cinderella herself. In reality, Cinderella is a blond park employee in a prom dress and clear plastic dress shoes. But to a little kid, this impostor is the real deal. All in all though, the ride isn't very exciting and it isn't very fancy, but it is still appealing to children.

I may have been ten, but I was a rather immature ten, who had no idea her behavior was an anachronism to her peers. While they would have scorned such a "baby ride" I jumped onto it, with eagerness and curiosity.
It was a mistake. The coach was small and crowded, Cinderella taking up one side ( why she needed that side of the coach to herself is beyond my guess, as her ass didn't look that big), and us kids on the other. While the coach made it's trip around the oval-shaped track I felt hot and crowded, my discomfort only made worse by the toddler next to me, who perched on his sister's lap, decided to place his sticky hand on my thigh for balance. I didn't understand that was the logical reason, until this was explained to my by my fifth grade teacher, who, when helping me write a narrative of this adventure for class (one which I never finished). She said that I should add it to the story, so it wouldn't seem like the kid was, as she put it, "being fresh". I just thought he was invading my personal space because he was being an idiot. Actually, 11 years later, I'm convinced the kid was idiot, because only and idiot would invade a stranger's personal space "for balance". But then again, he was a toddler, and generally, toddlers are idiots.

Nonetheless, the unwanted contact was annoying, as I have issues with my personal space being invaded without my permission. So to distract myself, I talked to Cinderella. I complimented her on her shoes, and she smiled and told me, they were just replacements, her real glass slippers were in the shop. In hindsight, she may have been explaining why they were plastic. I looked out the windows, admired the fountains, and the fake castle in the center of the oval track. I tried to pretend I was really on my way to a ball.
But when the ride ended, I was considerably grouchy. It was hot and the group had separated, making me panic. We would meet up with them again, however, in the Old West section of the park, which I will describe to you in my next entry. Stay tuned!