Roller Coaster Memories

When I was growing up, many summer afternoons were spent at my grandparents' house in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood in Cleveland. I have many memories of playing in the yard while Mom and Granny sat in lawn chairs by the garage and watched, of playing croquet with my cousins, and of fishing balls out of the giant pine tree in the front yard.

But another fun and awesome thing we got to do from time to time was visit Kiddie Land...a small amusement park for children, not far from where my grandparents lived. Now, to 5-year-old Michelle, this park was the greatest thing EVER. It was filled with rides I could ride on by myself without Mom or Dad coming with me. Small carnival-like rides, maybe. But to me, they were awesome. There was one "roller coaster" that was the coolest thing ever to me when I was that age. Maybe that's where my obsession with roller coasters started. To me, everything seemed so big and so awesome. Going was the highlight of the summer.

But eventually I outgrew the rides and we stopped going. Parks like Geauga Lake and later Cedar Point would take its place.

I honestly hadn't given much thought to the place until a few years ago when my friend Debbie and her now husband moved to a house on the west side of Cleveland. In order to get to their house, I drive past Kiddie Land.

I drove past it yet again today as I made the drive out to visit Debbie. And as I sat at the traffic light waiting to turn, I looked at the park. It looks different than I remember. It looks old and beaten up, as if the test of time is taking its toll on something that was once so pristine and new in the mind of a young child. The rides, once towering and fearsome, look tiny and timid. Was there really a time when I was small enough to fit into that seat on the Ferris wheel? Wasn't that hill on that roller coaster taller and more...scary? Wasn't the park so much bigger?

Time really does change your perspective on things. Even when I've driven past the park when it's been in operation it hasn't looked the same. The eyes of a 5-year-old who has yet to experience the world and it's trials have quite the different view of things than a 24-year-old woman who has been through so much since she was that age.

But I think it's nice to hold onto those memories of a time long past and long gone. They're happy memories from a childhood that was full of love and awesome summers. And whenever I pass the park, I will always be reminded of the joy and awe I once felt as a little girl experiencing her first amusement park.