GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS

A REMEMBERAMBLE OCTOBER 9, 2025

Good morning my friends, mi amigos, ole pals, etc.. I guess you know I was at the eye clinic yesterday, in Savannah, my buddy Chris Clifton drove us there. We left in time to eat first, and had a good seafood lunch, compliments of Chris. Before I forget, many of you asked that I set up a Cash App account, so I did. To access it, my cash tag is $weboyzthree. Chris Clifton drove me to my appointment yesterday in Savannah, and we ate at Carey Hilliard's, then over to do a couple of things dealing with his swimming pool restoration business, got all of that done and were still early for my appointment.

My cataract surgery for my right eye is scheduled for December 3rd. I am looking forward to it. I will see well once more and can work some. Well, let me see, yeah, okay, I remember now, where we left off yesterday with part one, of my horror-laden amusement park saga. I had shared about going to Disney World and that lightning killed the power for the entire Disney complex, and it killed a man near us, and we were all stranded on the monorail, Our trip to Six Flags on the hottest day on record for Georgia in 1983, where it went to 110°-112°, then I spoke of us going there for State Employees Day when it was so cold it was almost as miserable the killer heat.

Well, let's see, let us backtrack to the county fair in the late 1970s, in Swainsboro. We were at the fair, and ran up with Daddy and our step-mom, Nell, and she wanted to ride the Roundup, Daddy did not ride things at the fair, she did not want to ride by herself, so I was going to ride with her. We got on, and maybe four or five others got on also. We all clustered in the same area, and were waiting for enough fair-goers to fill it up and then we would ride. As we waited, the man who operated it was talking to a boy, and then, we learned later, left to go get something to eat, leaving the boy to run the ride.

About as soon as he left, instead of waiting for more people to get on to ride, in order to balance things out, he started her up. I was the only one on there who realized how bad this was, the others had not given a thought to it being so badly out of balance and what could happen. We were spinning, and the arm was slowly lifting it up, and up, the Roundup shivered, and shook, and the closer we got to the angle that was its limit, where it was supposed to stop going up and over, and was a bit shy of 90°, it should stop there, and then shortly start coming back down.

The ride was so out of balance, and I could see the boy was over by the controls talking to someone and not watching the ride at all. As we reached that final angle, and we should have stopped going up, the shaking was so bad, that it caused the Roundup to go over and past that angle. The railing around the outside actually was scrubbing the ground, and if it had gone over another foot, it would have dug into the ground hard enough to destroy it, or perhaps even break and roll across the fair grounds like a giant car tire, and kill us all. I got a glimpse as we went around, sparks flying.

The ride was scraping the ground, of the operator throwing his food down and running with terror on his face, over to the controls, where he slammed the boy aside onto the ground and stopped it just an instant before disaster struck. That was scary as heck. But, it was not the worst experience I ever had at fairs or amusement parks, nope, not at all. Let's backtrack a bit to the Kiwanis Ogeechee Fair in Statesboro. I was there on a date, of course, after we got on the Cobra, it came a sudden and tremendous downpour, with lightning striking all around.

The Cobra operated on a friction drive, and almost as soon as it started the deluge began also. We were being pelted by a monstrous downpour, soaked to the bone and miserable. The rain caused the friction drive to slip, and the Cobra would not move, only made squealing noises. Lightning was all around and too close. Then the power was knocked out. We were on the high spot, the upper limit of the ride when it stopped. We all had to climb down, a ways and then jump. We did, we jumped, I messed up my left knee forever. But limping, I and the others ran to get in our vehicles and put the fair far behind us.

We were miserably wet, but were happy that the intense lightning had not killed us. I vowed "never again!" Okay, y'all pile in with me, and we will return to Six Flags, to recount my number one, top, without a doubt most terrifying ride ever. We were there with friends, and we waited inline for a while to ride the Scream Machine. A couple who were our friends were there with their two young daughters, with several others in our group. As everyone was loading, their youngest daughter who was maybe eight or nine years old, would ride with me in the rear-most car.

The system of locking bars has changed from the system in use then. At that time, when the ride returned and stopped at the platform, they unlocked and were raised up and locked in the up position to facilitate passenger egress, and reload. As the cars are filled, the attendant, usually college kids, will walk along, lowering and locking the lap bars, from the front to the back. As the attendant was doing this, he had lowered them all, except ours, in the last car, when another employee asked him a question, and forgetting he had not lowered ours, and it was locked in the up position.

The ride started to move alongside the platform. I knew it would be impossible to remain in the ride without that bar locked down, I was yelling to the attendants, trying to get their attention but it was so noisy they never heard me. I was desperate, because as it stood, we were going to be killed in a matter of seconds. In one final bid to try to save our lives, I reached out and as we passed the last worker at the end of the platform, he was close enough that I slapped his lower leg, causing him to turn around and look. I was pointing to the open lap bar, and it took him a few seconds to register what he was seeing.

By then we were climbing that long, high hill. I was looking back and saw him running to hit the emergency stop. If you are familiar with such coasters, your know the bumpy, rumbly, and clunking sound as the cars ride up the hill before that big free for all drop. It was terribly unnerving knowing that would be the last sound and sensation of our lives. We climbed the hill, the first car went over the top, and at that moment, the young man stopped it. He ran all the way up to the top of that steep incline, and lowered our lap bar. That was the last ride of my life. I am not gonna ride the Tilt-a-Whirl, or Merry-Go-Round.

If ever in this world, you see me on an amusement park, carnival, or county fair ride, please call 911 and let the po-po find out who is holding me at gunpoint. We love and thank you all.

..... NUMBERS 6: 24-26 KJV

we boyz three, babee conway, lil merle, & me