I used to love to visit websites that are dedicated to defunct theme parks. However, the major one (defunctparks.com) hasn’t been updated since 2002. Regardless though, I came across there or somewhere else, a picture of a ride that used to be at the Texas State Fair when I was a kid.
It was called the Swingin’ Gym and seeing it again made me miss it something fierce. And in my endeavors to figure out how in the hell to google it name-wise, I noticed an eBay auction for one from early last year.
Oh, to have that kind of money. I’d have my own set with all kinds of other goodies. Like MJ, except without the monkey or love of little boys. Plus I still have my nose.
Anyway, anyone else play on these things? What other rides do you remember that are no longer around? If you find a picture, that’d be even better. Living through each other’s past vicariously, ya know.
How do the Swingin’ Gym work? It looks like you tossed and crushed in that little cage.
One from my childhood: It was basically a “Spinning Cylinder O’ Death.” You got in and the cylinder started spinning, pinning you to the wall by centifugal force. Then, the bottom of the chamber would drop away leaving you stuck to the wall twenty feet (or so it seemed) above the floor. Man, I loved that ride!
Yeah, they supposedly were pretty dangerous. Guess we won’t be finding any newer versions these days. But if I remember correctly, one person stood against one side of the cage, while another was opposite. Then both of you would start shifting your weight back and forth, pushing all the while. If you were really good, you’d make that thing swing completely over the top!
Oh man! I loved that the first time I rode it at Six Flags in Arlington. Ours was (is?) called the Spindle Top and the neatest thing was to race your knees up and kinda sorta sit. You’re right, it was awesome. And for anyone who’s never seen one, here are looks of several. Which that site, by the way, will definitely bring up the daydreams of what you’d buy if you hit the lotto. I think I want them all!
Now y’all continue to humor me please. This is too much fun!!
Not quite as state-fair-ish as the others that have been mentioned, but I miss riverboat rides. Disney parks still have jungle cruises, but I haven’t seen any in other parks in years. When Iwas in high school and college I worked as a captain on La Salle’s adventure at Six Flags Over Texas and I was lucky enough to be on the very last trip made on the ride before it closed. I still remember the spiel.
Oh yeah! I always enjoyed the one they had a Astroworld. Such a nice little ride.
Why did they go by the wayside? They were a great family ride and lasted longer than these 20 second steel coaster rides of today. Also, I imagine that as far as upkeep and safety inspections went, they were a breeze compared to rollercoasters and such.
Oh man! I LOVED that too. The absolute best was to hold your gaze just long enough to watch the tree come back up out of the water after the ‘beaver’ had chewed it down.
(Eek that sentence looks ugly, but I’m sure you understand what I mean. :p)
And now that I’ve entrapped more than one enthusiast in my lair, I’m gonna hafta come back later and post some pictures of dark rides. Oooooh, scary.
I believe there were two reasons for closing the one at SFOT. First, it didn’t have the hourly capacity that other rides have and a long wait=unhappy guests. Second, I believe they just plain wanted the location for the river rapids ride that replaced it.
“Bonjour mon amis and welcome aboard my little French riverboat. I’m delighted to see so many brave and smiling faces aboard for this incredibly dangerous journey through time. Today we’re going to be traveling down waters much like those traveled by the French explorer La Salle when he came to Texas in the year 1686 looking for the mouth of the Mississippi river. He never found the mouth, but he did found the first French trading post in Texas. It’s just up ahead around the bend…”
I’m sure that spiel is taking up valuable brain space that could be used for something else. There was also a spiel that those of us who worked there referred to as the Forbidden Spiel. It included material that we were pretty sure would get us fired. I’d love to know if the Disney employees have an equivalent.
I also still remember the spiel for the train, but when I learned it the train traveled in the opposite direction than it does today. Last time I rode the train I was pleased to see that it was still there, but deeply dissapointed that now the spiel is – I hate to say it – a RECORDING.
Cedar Point, the park on Ohio’s Lake Erie shore where I worked one summer and visited frequently as a youth, still has its Paddlewheel Excursions. I don’t know if the layout and spiel are as I remember them, though, as I last “hit the Point” about twenty years ago. One joke I remember involved animated “Native Americans” (although that term wasn’t in use at that time) firing guns at the “settlers”. The guide reassuringly told passengers not to worry – “they’re Cleveland Indians, and they can’t hit a thing!”
I was ten years old when my dad took the family to Cleveland’s Euclid Beach Park on its final day of operation. We had annually visited “the Beach” for the picnic of the Musicians Union Local #4, of which Dad is a longtime member. As the linked article notes, the park had a Swingin’ Gym, but it was an “adult” ride reserved for people at least twelve years old. Thus, I never got to try it out.
Oooooooh, I saw one of these at the Puyallup Fair this past September. I didn’t get a chance to get a “ride”, though.
When the FREX/Saint John exhibition came through in New Brunswick each September, they had a similar ride called the Gravitron, where you’d be pushed flat against the wall, but you stood against a weird plastic seat cushion thingy, the whole length of your body, which was on rollers, and the pressure would eventually push you up the wall.
Do not spit on these rides. You’ll hurt no one but yourself. Unless you time it juuuust right, then you could get your buddy beside you. But it’s rarely worth the risk, unless you’ve got a camera. Never worth the risk if your buddy has a camera.
First off Curate, you know you’re going to be asked to give us the Forbidden Spiel version. So, just go ahead and dish.
Next Sternvogel, Euclid Beach Park looks like it would have been great fun. Wish I could’ve gone and for you to have sampled a Swingin’ Gym.
And Anastasaeon, I think this might be a good picture to describe what you’re talking about.
As for me…
with my fascination of all ‘haunted house’ type stuff, this place sells 'em. But again, I really love the older ones, like some from my very first link. We had a 3-story one in Dallas too. One would get really excited to take that little dip.
What I wish was still out there is this, the Turbo. Oh, I know there’s some, but not any I’ve actually gotten to ride.
Speaking of, anyone ever rode one of these caterpillar rides? It’s the 2nd one from the top. I’m almost positive I’ve seen one in person, but not sure how far that extends to having tried it out. Are there any still around?
Just for funsies…
Here’s a fun little flash animation of a dark ride. Don’t anyone be afraid. We are all over 42" tall, right?
“Ahead on our left you’ll see Spanish missionary who has enlisted the help of some friendly local indians who are working with him to build a mission here in the wilderness. Finding them at work in the daylight hours is unusual – most often they work at night after spending their days hunting and fishing. It’ll be an imposing structure when it’s finished with a chapel and two parallel dormitory wings, and from above it will assume the shape of a capital letter ‘E.’ That’s why these structures are commonly referred to as Nocturnal E-missions.”
Various references were also made to the Spanish fort that fired at the boat as it passed. The regular spiel called for a comment about the Spanish saving their ammunition, the Forbidden Spiel suggested that they stopped because they didn’t have the balls to fire at us. I also learned quite early that the cannons could be made considerably more realistic. They were operated by propane of some other similar gas that was ignited and shot a flame out of the muzzle. Some enterprising riverboat captain had discovered early on that a roll of toilet paper stolen from one of the restrooms and shoved in the muzzle made a pretty impressive flaming projectile when the cannon went off. This was something that I don’t think anybody would have tried while the ride was in regular operation because even we realized that a guest being hit with a flaming wad of toilet paper was taking it a bit far, but there were times in the day when boats with only ride operators in them made the circut and those could be pretty exciting if the rest of the ride crew wasn’t being kept busy enough.
Late in the ride there came a point when the boat appeared to be on a collision course with a waterfall. At the last moment the waters would divide, a door in the cliff face would open, and the boat would enter the cave that was the hiding place of La Salle’s treasure. The regular spiel called for an expression of relief as we found ourselves saved from certain disaster. The Forbidden Spiel expressed a differnt type of pleasure “Hold on now as the waters spread wide and our boat thrusts deep into the inviting wet darkness of the cave.”
The waterfall was the other place where serious sabotage could be committed on fellow crew members. The way the splitting water part fo the waterfall worked was that there was a tank on top of the ride that was filled by a pump and when it was full its overflow cascaded down the waterfall. When the splitting effect took place a drain in the bottom of the tank let all the water in it cascade out of the bottom into the diversion channels and the front of the waterfall stayed dry until a limit switch was tripped by the boat which started the tank refilling and eventually overflowing again – a process that took about ten seconds after the switch was tripped. Normally this wasn’t a problem since the limit switch was operated by the boat after it entered the cave, but there was a bypass switch on the tank itself and a crewmember with a mean streak could wait on top of the cave until his or her victim’s boat was just entering the waterfall and then hit the bypass. There’s a series of mechanical sounds that every captain knew heralded the restart of the waterfall and one of the most adreneline-inducing experiences I ever had was hearing the series of thumps as the valves cycled while my boat was still under the waterfall. The waterfall never looked that impressive from in front, but the amount of water it could dump into the boat in just a few seconds was astounding.
Sorry about the long hijack. The opportunity to talk about that part of my life just doesn’t come up al that often.
Regardless though, I came across there or somewhere else, a picture of a ride that used to be at the Texas State Fair when I was a kid.
This is too much fun!! 
