He wasn't just the Hair Club for Men president. ... He was also a client

Remember well the Morton Downey Jr. Cigarette Hour, er, Show.

The real craziness as a kid was when the Braves/Cubs/Mets would play each other and you could switch channels between WTBS/WGN/WOR.

 

I went to Action Park when I was maybe 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. So it would have probably been in the early to mid 80s. I was not an adventurous or reckless kid, and I remember the anticipation and adrenaline you'd feel waiting in some of those lines (there were always long lines) where you'd essentially be climbing up what felt like Mount Everest to do something that in hindsight seems insane. I was always there with a bunch of other kids my age and we'd be trying one up each other with bravado, so at the time fear never felt like an option. I was a little scared of some of the rides, but never enough not to look forward to the day. Plus, you usually just got caught up in the fact that there was a line of other teenage boys all climbing up to hurdle their body at a high speed somehow, and that made it seem less intimidating.

Thinking back on it , some of the rides were really insane, though, especially with the way the world has gotten with kids putting on body armor and helmets to just to get on a scooter. Even the tidal wave pool was kind of scary. It got really deep and it would suck people in like a black hole. They had the ride where you'd slide down on a mat going like a zillion miles per hour, and it always ended up with you colliding at full speed with the person in front of you who had somehow slowed down. I can go on and on. The speed boats were ridiculous, too, because of how fast they went and how reckless people would be. I never left there with broken bones, but there were always scrapes and bruises. I don't think anyone under a certain age could conceive of how a place like that existed, probably, but it was actually a crazy amount of fun for a kid that age.