Feeling Nostalgic Day 3: Wisconsin Dells

It saddens me to see what has become of Wisconsin Dells. The city has absolutely no connection to Greek history or mythology and there is a greedy guy who is trying to buy up everything and turn it into that, as he was quoted in the Dells Events newspaper a couple years back saying he wanted to turn his places into the “Disney of the Dells”.

When we went to Mt. Olympus a few years ago, we had more fun in the back part of what used to be Family Land than up in the Mt. Olympus crowded maniacal madness. The rollercoasters gave me whiplash, the wait for one go-kart ride was two hours for like….two laps, the waves in the gigantic wave pool are strong enough to literally knock you off your feet, and we nearly went head over heels on the tube ride. It wasn’t fun, it was terrifying! Plus having to walk a mile downhill from the parking lot AFTER paying $10 to park! Actually, the walk down the hill was not that bad…. It was going up that killed us, especially after a long day of being out in the sun and water.

I want the old waterparks back. Riverview Park and Waterworld, Family Land, and Noah’s Ark. Well, Noah’s is still around. Riverview was my favorite because it was small enough to not really get lost and still be able to do and see everything with enough to keep you busy. Plus it wasn’t totally a lost cause… if it was too cold or you got sick of being in the water, you could go on the rides. We always went to Riverview at least once a year because my Dad could get free tickets and I could choose who I wanted to go with me for one day of the summer. There was one year that Uncle Edward and Kayla, Derek, and Kyle came with me and Kayla had to be rescued by the lifeguard in the wave pool. I remember taking Melody and her three sons one year. Another year I took Dave and Carol and his kids. I had one of my birthdays there with my two best friends and Beth and Michele and my Mom. I had a waterproof disposable camera and took pictures of my friends doing handstands underwater in the pool. I remember just Beth and me going one year and we stopped at the docks to visit Dad and Beth locked her keys in her car. Then it was pouring rain so hard on the way home that we could barely see the road. The first year I was working and going to Riverview for my birthday, my boss would not give me the day off so I told her I was going to call in. And I did. Also called in the next day because I was sunburnt so bad I could not move. She was not too happy with me. Apparently if you plan on calling in to work, don’t tell your boss the day before...
Galaxi Rollercoaster at Riverview:

We had so much fun at those waterparks. Going to Riverview and Family Land for A/B days. If you had an A or B on your report card you would get in free and it was usually about a week or two after school was out for the summer. I remember going with Beth and Michele once to Riverview for A/B day and my brother got so sunburnt from not wearing a shirt in the pool. And we went to Family Land once also and I lost my t-shirt on the Pirate Ship ride. I was so upset because it was one of my favorite t-shirts. It was pink and in glittery letters it said “I once thought I was wrong but I was mistaken” or something like that. I was like eight and didn’t understand it, but I do remember my Mom telling me she never liked that shirt. She seemed almost happy that I did not have it anymore.

Family Land was also the waterpark that made me terrified of tube rides. To this day, I won’t go on the ones where you put your butt in the hole, but I’ll go on the ones that have a bottom and you sit completely down in. This is because Beth and I went on one at Family Land and at the bottom of the slide we flipped over and she came down on top of me and I thought I was going to drown. I didn’t, of course, but I’ll take a body flume slide over a tube ride any day.

Noah’s Ark is a good waterpark on a hot day because that’s just it… nothing but water involved entertainment. I’ve never really had many good experiences there. Went with Mom one year on Labor Day and the park was so big and hilly she couldn’t really walk around much, so she sat in the wave pool most of the day and I ran around on my own. That was no fun. I took a friend’s son a couple of years ago and after an hour and a half he was bored and wanted to go home because he’s been there so many times that it wasn’t fun for him anymore. Riverview Park and Waterworld has always been my favorite waterpark. Too bad now it is a zoo :(

There was also a small waterpark in Plover. It was called Rainbow Falls and I was only there once with two girlfriends of mine. It was small and now it’s a car dealership. “They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot…..”

But it’s not just the waterparks around the Dells… it’s everything. I remember being crowded by people window shopping until midnight or later. Now it seems the sidewalks are rolled up by 10 p.m. except for partyin’ bar hoppers. Broadway and downtown isn’t appealing to many anymore because they’re all in Lake Delton at the ginormous indoor waterpark hotels that have everything so no one ever has to leave. Downtown is losing its’ draw… and even the unique store that has been downtown for over 30 years (Bailey’s Landing) has closed down. I am just wondering where the giant singing troll from their store will end up.

 
 

And I remember the Pepsi tower I always wanted to ride at Fort Dells but they closed down before I got a chance to. I remember I was probably 5 or 6 and riding in the backseat of Marie’s car with Mom and staring up at the tower as we went by. I don’t remember where we were going that day, but it was raining. The old saloon and mini golf course downtown with the theater hidden in there somewhere. Biblical Gardens and Xanadu, the foam house of the future. Even though I had never been to those two places, I remember seeing them. The old Lake Delton McDonald’s where we could dine outside and the sparrows or wrens would come right up to the tables and beg you for French fries.

Every year I would anxiously await the arrival of the new travel and attraction guide to see what would be new every year. I would collect them and keep them in a box under my bed, along with all the individual attraction brochures. I wish I had still kept some of them; had I known when I was a child that these things would no longer exist. Places like The Wonder Spot and Corny Maze.

It was ironic yesterday… one of the local facebook pages I follow (Dells Local Views) asked “where is your favorite place to enjoy the natural beauty of the Dells” followed with an opinion question about nobody coming here for the beauty and history of the area anymore. 

Funny that I was just writing about that. I swear I have a sixth sense or something… 

Feeling Nostalgic Day 2: Skating Rinks

Who remembers strapping four wheels to your feet and hittin’ a slippery wooden floor grooving to the music below awesome lights that could give a person seizures? Yeah, finding a skating rink nowadays… not so easy peasy. 

We used to have one in Friendship that was open on Friday and Saturday nights. It wasn’t humongous, and had a cement floor (ouch!) but it still fulfilled the need for a clean, safe weekend night out with friends.

In junior high, we would take a quarterly field trip to either Skate City in the Rapids or Tamarack in the Dells. I never once went to Tamarack; always Skate City. We could choose which place to go to as a reward for good behavior. Only the students who had not been in any trouble that quarter could go. I did have some disciplinaries, however they all seemed to disappear from my file after the principal got sick of seeing my parents due to write-ups for frivolous actions.

Anyway, back to the skating rinks. I haven’t been on rollerblades in years. I still do own a pair. I think the last time I skated was at my nephew’s birthday party a few years ago at High Rollers in La Crosse… 2011 maybe? All my head injuries haven’t helped either. It was nearly the hardest thing in the world for me to make the decision to sell my hockey equipment and skates last winter.

I remember when I first learned how to skate. I was in 5^th grade, and one of our neighbors gave me a pair of figure skates. Prior to this, my experience with skating was putting on the roller skates, sitting on the skateboard, and rolling down the hill on the street next to our house.

The fire department would come out every winter and flood the schoolyard for an ice skating rink for us kids. My best friend taught me how to ice skate during noon recess one day. I threw up in class right after lunch that day and was sent home.

That Christmas I received a pair of hockey skates. I don’t remember how I obtained my first hockey stick, but I was pretty much unstoppable after that. I would go to the schoolyard after school and play hockey with one of the teacher’s sons, who was obsessed with the Mighty Ducks movies (as was I) and thought he was one of the Bash Brothers. This kid was like 6 years old at the time.

The first weekend after school let out after 6^th grade, we went up to Park Falls to visit my grandparents. And to leave my brother there for the summer. On the way home, we stopped at Pamida and my reward for having a good final report card was my first pair of rollerblades, complete with a helmet, knee and elbow pads, wrist guards, etc. I felt like I could barely move once I got all the gear on, how on Earth was I going to learn how to skate?

By Monday morning, my best friend was over and we were down in the schoolyard on the blacktopped smooth parking lot so she could teach me how to rollerblade. I didn’t throw up this time, and I only remember falling once or twice. 

Feeling Nostalgic Day 1: Playgrounds and Playplaces

                Old school playgrounds. I just mentioned to someone today that I remember as a kid enjoying going to other places to see the playground equipment that parks and playgrounds had that we didn’t have in our area. I even used to create my own dream playgrounds on paper. 

The white springy rocket ship at the Lion’s Park in Adams.

The swinging gate at a park in Waupaca that we went to on a field trip in 6^th grade and a reporter having lunch in the park took a picture of me hanging upside down on it. He said he would send us a copy of that paper but we never received one. I’ve considered driving to Waupaca one of these days to see if I can hunt it down in their archives or something.

In the “yearbook” Ms. Ratzlaff made for us at Brooks School, there was also a photocopied picture of me hanging upside down on the monkey bars outside Mrs. Burke’s classroom. I’m a hoarder, but cannot find that yearbook anywhere! Sheesh, I thought I kept everything! 

The curly metal slide at the park in Westfield that I loved and for some reason my brother hated. That was also the place I had my first taste of Sarsaparilla. 

The old metal playgrounds at McDonald’s with the equipment made out of the characters. The old merry go rounds. Now everything is plastic and merry-go-rounds are plat formed at ground level because Oh my God, kids were getting hurt! Yeah, that happens.

 

And that brings me to indoor playrooms most commonly seen at fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Hardee’s, Burger King, etc.

I can’t tell you how many times a vehicle crashed through the wall and into the ball pit at the Hardee’s in Adams. Three, maybe four that I remember. 

The Hardee’s in the Rapids had this amazing tri-level carpeted fortress with slides that landed you in the suspended ball pit. I loved that one. I had one of my birthday parties there as a kid. I’m pretty sure I still have the glow in the dark plastic cross and name card Beth gave me during that party.

Slowly, the indoor kiddie metropolises began to fade away due to, oh, I don’t know… germ fear mongering over-protective parents would be my guess. You all know we’re raising a generation of dependent wusses, right? Oh, wait, that was the topic I was not going to drift to in this blog. Some other time. Stay tuned...

Where was your favorite playground as a child?

Feeling Nostalgic Lately?

On the radio here at work, they were playing a dance song with a line that went “everyone get on the party line” and that made me think of all the things that kids who are growing up now in the advanced technology age will never experience, such as a party line (which I am sure has a different meaning today) but there are already plenty of lists out there and not where I’m going with this one. Maybe another time.

                Nostalgia. Thanks to endless lists on Buzzfeed and ancient pictures on Pinterest that have allowed us to remember things we only had as kids, I get so lost in it. I can start looking at one list on Buzzfeed that one of my friends linked on facebook with a title such as “30 Things only 90s Kids Will Understand” or the like, laugh, remember, agree, and see another link to something that relates to me as a 90s kid and just go on for a while. Or I’ll start looking at pics of old toys on Pinterest and next thing I know is three hours have passed and that cat is starving and dinner hadn’t prepared itself. 

                Now I laugh even more. Because I complain of how kids being raised in the digital age now will never know what life prior was like, but if it weren’t for the Internet and social media, we would have nothing to reminisce from except our own pictures and memories. 

                Again, a topic for another time. Back to nostalgia. It seems that many enjoy the memories, based on the comments and captions and lists. I know I do, which is probably why my Pinterest board named “Have You Seen my Childhood” has the most pins. Flashback Fun! I like that title. It’s from a movie soundtrack but I don’t remember what movie. All I remember is that particular scene made me cry.

                Am I the only 90s kid who is caught up in all this? I’m sure I am not. But why are we? Do we long for those days to return? Is it because we were kids and took everything for granted and thought it would never end? When you’re a kid you want to be an adult and once you reach that point, you just want to curl into a ball and crawl into your Daddy’s arms or return to your blanket fort and shoot Nerf darts at the dog. Speaking of Nerf darts, have you seen the Nerf guns they have nowadays? Some of them are the size of assault rifles and military grade replicas! Again, that will drift me to a topic that is for another time. 

For now, here is my list of things from my childhood that I wish still existed or greatly enjoyed. However, it is quite extensive, so to keep your attention I will post a little at a time as a series. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, and the next few days as I elaborate on the long gone memories of my youth.

What did YOU want to be when you grew up?

Everyone asks kids what they want to be when they grow up. Tonight at work I’m asking people what they wanted to be when they grew up.

A nurse in surgery.

A journalist.

A jockey when she was little, then in high school she wanted to be a bone specialist.

An astronaut. FBI. He didn’t remember.

A millionaire. But money’s not everything. I just wanted to live in the country with a white picket fence and a pickup truck.

A musician. Because I thought they played lots of music and lived on the beach and had girls chasing us 

around tossing their underwear at us and it sounded like fun.

If we would have had money for me to go to school, I would have been a nurse.

He wanted to be big and tall.

I honestly don’t remember, but it wasn’t working as (insert job title) at (place of employment).

I wanted to be a veterinarian until I found out they put animals to sleep.

Math teacher.

Stewardess on an airplane.

A truck driver.

Rich and never have to work again.

A veterinarian.

Not here.

Either law enforcement or a firefighter, but I ended up going into the military.

A cop.

Physical therapist.

A police officer. Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries. Then when Monk came on in 2001, I wanted to be a detective.

Jedi.

                Yes, he said a Jedi.

               

Many asked me after I asked them; or while they were trying to remember, what I wanted to be. Ha! Mine changed as often as I rearranged my bedroom.

               

                I remember first wanting to be a kindergarten teacher, then an art teacher. When my brother and I were young we would play cops ‘n robbers a lot. I was always the cop. Because I could never catch him is what he thought. And it was always him being arrested for attempted murder. Maybe I can also attribute that to Unsolved Mysteries? But by the time I was 12, I was saying I wanted to be an inmate because it looked like fun on TV. Yeah, if only I knew the truth then… I got that wish when I was 21.

                Let’s see, I can also remember wanting to be an architect and an interior designer. Again when we were little, one of the things I loved to do was layout cities on tag board to play with our Micro Machines. I have graph paper pads of home, school, and mall floor plans I have created.

                Hmmm… what else did I want to be? I had this t-shirt with a telephone on it that said “Chatterbox” and my Mom said I was going to end up being a telephone operator someday. But my teachers always told her I was so quiet they never knew I was in class! Ha ha! I did end up doing a short stint as a customer service rep for Verizon Wireless, but that didn’t last long. I’m too active and not cut out for cubicle work. Considered being a 911 dispatcher also but again, I would rather be out in the action then sitting behind a computer screen. 

               

                I had aspirations of being a novelist or journalist. I would make up short stories and type them up on a manual typewriter when I was maybe 8, 9 years old. I was our Club Reporter in 4-H and would write up our activity for the month for the local newspaper and the 4-H newsletter. I also did the club scrapbook, and worked on the yearbook in high school so I was also interested in layout or graphic design, coupled with my interest in desktop publishing. I wrote a book when I was 17 but it’s cheesy because I was 17. I attempted to get that one published in a couple of first writer’s contests but was declined. Apparently critics in New York don’t believe that teens talk how I portrayed them… however most of it was true and they either don’t talk like that in New York or teens have changed in the past 13 years. I’ve started a couple more books in the meantime but hope to really finish one of them, and the one I have put forth the most effort on so far. I’ve even considered making it into a trilogy. There was also a point in time I wanted to work for the local newspaper as a proofreader; well Editor I guess they call it that now. Sometimes I liked to read the newspaper just to pick out all the mistakes and was tempted to highlight them and drop it back into their drop box!

               

                Hmmm… what else did I dream of doing with my life? My two best friends from high school talked about after graduation, buying a station wagon, throwing a mattress in the back and touring the country. Yeah, that never happened. I’ve still barely made it out of the Midwest and it’s going on…12 years since graduating high school? One of those friends completely cut ties with me the summer after she graduated and the other, well we lost contact for a few years but now talk once in a while on facebook.

                I considered going into law until I found out it took eight years of school. Then again, I’m nearly there as it is and I still only have an Associate’s degree… almost a Bachelor’s. My sister and I even talked about how cool it would be to go to school together for paralegal, but I am not really a good liar.

                Storm chasing and photography is fun and exciting, but there’s no way to make a career out of that. Some do, but they have much more knowledge about meteorology and science than I could ever remember. It’s more fun to do as a hobby, not for a career. I don’t want to quit doing something I enjoy because I get bored with it by doing it all the time and then will never learn to appreciate and have fun with it ever again. 

                I guess the point I am trying to make is that I don’t know. I simply do not know. I don’t know what I want to do. I have plans; I have dreams and aspirations, but I feel stuck. Most people by the time they are 30 have completed college, are beginning their careers, married and have a kid or two or five. I’m like way behind in that sense.  And I don’t know why, because it’s not going to just fall out of the sky and land in my lap. If it will, I should be wandering around aimlessly, wearing a helmet wrapped in tin foil.

                On the other hand, I do know that I, as others have said above, do not want to be here at this place doing this job forever. I enjoy it, but I know there are better things out there for me. It’s just a matter of figuring out what and when it shall all fall into my lap.