Well, another Cedar Point season is finally over! Now we can get our roads back! I haven’t been to Cedar Point in several years mainly because if I wanted to get sick to my stomach I’d take a stiff drink of whiskey or beer, which would give me the same vomiting results as any ride there, and would be a whole lot cheaper too! I’m not sure what a season pass costs these days, but I’m sure if I wanted one, I would need to mortgage my house again and/or pledge my first-born as security.  When I was younger, Cedar Point did indeed have particular attraction and thrill. We would go to the Columbus Ave. pier and take the Cedar Point Ferry. That was fun. This also was before the days that people in Cleveland, Michigan, and Pennsylvania somehow found out our great hidden local piece of paradise spot. The last time in the early years I was there was 1965. Tim, Tom, and I made plans that summer to take the Ferry and spend the day there! We caught the Ferry and entered the park. In those days they had just started the all day pass thing, only in those days it was called “One Price Day’. It only cost $3.00 and you got a different colored string each day, which was clipped, around your wrist with a shiny silver metal clip. Tom’s Uncle Stan had a “Funhouse” there and if we had thought about it, we probably could have gotten in for free.  As soon as we got there, our normal “antics” immediately kicked into high gear. We went to Tom’s uncle’s fun house and messed around with some of the controls and generally made pests of ourselves. We then headed out to the Midway and rides to cause general mischief and make nuisances of ourselves. What was great in those days is that we could “go around” as much as we wanted on most rides due to the lessened crowds in those days. We spent a lot of time on the new “Sky Ride” which covered the entire midway high up on the cable “sky cars”. Each trip around we took, we yelled at every car that passed us going the opposite direction, “Hey! That’s the one that fell yesterday”!!!! When we weren’t doing this, we were throwing coins out the car to watch them bounce around on the hard surface of the midway probably 200 feet or more below. In later years, I cringed of how dangerous this was if one of the fast projectile coins would have hit someone! Oh well, you don’t think about those sort of things when you’re a 15 year old kid! One of the rides I liked was “The Wild Mouse” which is no longer there these days, I’m told. Those little roller coaster type cars would turn 180 degrees at the end of several curves and as a result, I always had bruised ribs! If this ride were still there and I rode it now, I would no doubt end up in intensive care with broken ribs and punctured lungs! Another ride that’s no longer there is the one where you spun around against a wall, then the floor would lower and you were “stuck to the wall” with centrifugal force! We used to use all our strength and fold our legs up and put our arms out resulting in sliding down the wall. When the floor came back up, it always bent our knees somewhat since there was enough centrifugal force left to prevent us from sliding up! My daughter said they don’t have the ride anymore because someone got hurt on it several years ago, probably doing the very some antics I just described! After we left the midway in shambles, we went into the Arcade to wreak havoc. One little “ride” featured a rocket ship you sat in and after depositing a dime the rocket ship came to life and had a joy stick (which was ahead of its time). You used the joystick and directed the rocket up, down, and from side to, There was a light beam on the front of the rocket and a panel about 3 feet in front covered with large, medium, and small targets, which would then add up the score when the narrow light beam hit them. The smallest targets gave much higher scores of course. After a few times with very low scores, one of us would grasp the rocket and move it manually to hit all the smallest targets to really rack up record scores no doubt! Eventually a “bouncer” noticed our abuse of the equipment, came over, and nonchalantly said, “It’s got controls you know”. Maybe he was just jealous because of the record score we had accumulated with our “manual control”! After we “got the hint” we were no longer allowed to abuse their equipment, we made a hasty retreat to the “Wax Museum”. That place was eerie and scary as far as I was concerned. There was one was figure display that I still have nightmares over once and a great while. It was on old lady who was throwing babies into a wood cooking stove! I thought then and still think that was a really bizarre and macabre subject for a display! If I recall correctly, all that section was supposed to be “true” depictions of true events, which made it even more macabre!  I guess that old lady was related to W.C. Fields who when asked how he liked children and his reply was, “Well done”! I’d be curious to know if that wax museum is still there, and if so, are those same eerie displays still there? To this day I never ride in rides that make you go upside down (another story subject). The one ride that absolutely scared the daylights out of me as a kid was a Ferris Wheel! The few times I rode one; I was terrorized the whole time! Why, beats me, it’s a case of, I just “am”. I don’t know if the “Double Ferris Wheel” is still there at Cedar Point, but then and now I can honestly say I never did nor would ever ride it for any amount of money!!!! That’s a fact!!! I don’t know what sadistic minded person designed that ride (Probably yet another Demo”rat” conspiracy no doubt)! (Hey, cut me some slack, it is election season after all)! Unfortunately, these antics are all I can recall from the remote recesses of my dusty Paxil-free (for now) brain. I’m sure after our few trips to Cedar Point as teenagers that the owners have counted their blessings over the years that we have not returned since 1965!