RIP Amusement Parks thread.

[Batman]

The six flags a half hour from my home back in the day had a terrible Halloween fire that resulted in 8 teenagers dying.

This was the Six Flags I grew up going to and eventually worked at. By the 90s they'd rebranded the area around the old haunted house to a Bavarian themed area. I worked at an ice cream stand there.

They had a memorial garden on the spot for a while, but I think it was eventually replaced by bumper cars. A guy I knew worked there and swore the cars would move around on their own.

 

[Fred siegle]

This was the Six Flags I grew up going to and eventually worked at. By the 90s they'd rebranded the area around the old haunted house to a Bavarian themed area. I worked at an ice cream stand there.

They had a memorial garden on the spot for a while, but I think it was eventually replaced by bumper cars. A guy I knew worked there and swore the cars would move around on their own.

My sister and brother both worked there also. My sister dressed as a clown and juggled (bowling pins, lacrosse balls - lacrosse balls were great because if you dropped one it would bounce back and you could try to act like it was on purpose). My brother was an attendant at the top of the log flume, and he used to tell people as they passed that the brake was on the right side (and of course there was no brake, the water stopped the log at the bottom of the ride). Panic often ensued.

 

[Batman]

My sister and brother both worked there also. My sister dressed as a clown and juggled (bowling pins, lacrosse balls - lacrosse balls were great because if you dropped one it would bounce back and you could try to act like it was on purpose). My brother was an attendant at the top of the log flume, and he used to tell people as they passed that the brake was on the right side (and of course there was no brake, the water stopped the log at the bottom of the ride). Panic often ensued.

I did two years in food service and one in rides. Didn't work on Log Flume, but had some friends who did. It had two or three attendants along the course of the ride -- one at the top of the first hill, one at the last, and one in the middle way on the back side, and they'd usually rotate stations.
One of my buddies loved being the person in the middle because it was so isolated that no supervisors bothered coming out there, and the only real responsibility was to make sure nobody was jumping out of the boat. If he was hungover or stayed up late the night before that was his happy place.

 

[wicked]

I was at the local beach today and it was home to an amusement park until the early '80s. I was a year or two too young to experience it and I wish I had. I can't envision an amusement park on that footprint as it is now.

 

[Fred siegle]

One more from my past. Apparently it is still open? There was also a big park in north jersey/New York border, but i can’t remember the name.

 

[DanOregon]

Given the "unpredictable behavior" of the target demographic, the wages and training of staff and basic economics - it's amazing there aren't more tragedies at amusement parks.

 

[Batman]

Given the "unpredictable behavior" of the target demographic, the wages and training of staff and basic economics - it's amazing there aren't more tragedies at amusement parks.

Six Flags, at least, made you take certification tests. You had to pass one to be an attendant, another to operate (work the control panel), and a third to train others.
Depending on the ride, the operator and trainer tests could be pretty exhaustive. They also wouldn't let you take the operator test until you were ready -- either working the ride a few weeks, or clearly knew what you were doing because you'd worked other rides -- and had been instructed and cleared by a trainer.

The attendant tests, though, were pretty simple. Some rides, they could get you to pass those with 15 minutes of training and 15 minutes to take the test. The hardest part for some tests was learning where all the fire extinguishers are.
A couple of times, someone was certified as an attendant just to cover a lunch break or two.
I got an attendant certification for one coaster just for the hell of it. My friends worked it and talked so much about it when we hung out that I knew most of the basics before I was formally trained. Only time I ever used it was to cover a bathroom break.

We were all coaster geeks and took it pretty seriously, though. It was fun to have that knowledge and apply it. It was 30 years ago. Who knows how the motivations of the current generation work?