LET ME RIDE ON THE WALL OF DEATH ONE MORE TIME: In the category of Even More Stuff You Could Not Pay Me Enough Money To Do, Cracked.com visits
New Jersey's shuttered Action Park (more
here) as part of its review of
the six most terrifying theme park rides ever built.
I visited Action Park a couple of times as a young teen sometime around 85/86 I guess. I was a good swimmer and that tidal wave pool scared the crap out of me. I have been in a couple similar since then but none felt as dangerous as that one. THe rumor was that there was an undertow. I was not allowed to go on the Alpine Slide but I do remember seeing the walking wounded all around the park from it.
ReplyDeleteIt did have a reputation as being dangerous but I didn't realize at the time it was that much more dangerous then other similar places. I haven't thought about that place in a long time.
I can still sing the theme song to Action Park, but having been a few times when it was open, the theme song is as close as you will ever get me again.
ReplyDeleteIs this the place that had the commercials singing "Action! Action! Action! Action Park!"?
ReplyDelete<span>I learned how to ski at Vernon Valley/Great Gorged in the early '80s. Nothing like learning how to cut your edges while going down the mountain with nothing between you and your sweet little bippy than 3 inches of solid ice, a little premade snow on top and a bunch of shale under it all.</span>
ReplyDeleteI went to summer camp in the Poconos every year from age 8 to 20. The first week of every summer, we'd take the whole camp to Action Park. It was a huge treat, but I've never liked amusement park rides, and I found most of it terrifying. One of our swimming counselors used to position herself by the Tidal Wave pool all day and would always jump in to save a couple of kids over the course of the day. And of course, despite repeated instructions to bring long pants and a long shirt for the alpine slide, someone always ended up with a big gash on their thigh from it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it was in going to Action Park that all the kids at my camp learned our greatest bit of safety instruction. If someone is bothering you, just say, "My father's a cop... and he's right over there."
After all of that, my biggest memory of Action Park is those huge, twisty, multicolored lollipops all the kids got.
I also went to camp in the Poconos when I was a kid (5-8) where they took us to Action Park, but I can't remember if it was this Action Park or whether there was another one in the Poconos (if it was another one, I think it was close to identical as I remember the alpine slide, the tidal wave pool and the long, steep water slides in the pictures of one of Adam's links.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I saw this, I had to come here and post, but Sue beat me to it. I loved that Tidal Wave Pool, but it was scary as hell. I can't quite believe that we used to let 60 kids loose in Action Park for a whole day with nothing but the admonition, "meet back here at 6pm." (Well, and the cop thing, which is very useful.)
ReplyDeleteWe rarely went back to camp without an injury, but damn, that place was a good time.
I live and grew up in NJ, and went to Action Park a few times as a teen. In my memory, the closed, looped slide actually had the bottom of the loop underground, but the picture suggests my memory may be over-dramatizing things. I do remember an awesome 4-man raft ride that my friends and I went on one day many, many times when it was raining slightly and the lines disappeared.
ReplyDeleteAction Park is the kind of place that simply could not open up today. Of course, it also probably shouldn't have opened up in the 80's, either, but it was great, because even in middle school, we all knew how ridiculously dangerous and unsafe it was.
ReplyDeleteI liked that some nicknamed it "Class Action" Park. I'm pretty sure I went there once when I was in high school, but have no particular memories.
ReplyDeleteSenior year of high school a bunch of friends and I went to Action Park and it was indeed every bit as dangerous as this article states. I can't believe a) none of us got hurt and b) none of us even thought that getting hurt was a possibility. Ah, youth.
ReplyDeleteI never went to Action Park, but I felt it's after effects. Growing up I'd spend my summers in (South) Jersey, and there was nothing I liked more than the little (though not so little to me at the time) amusement parks. But the problem was that my parents would never let me go on the thrill rides (especially the roller coasters), since, in their words, you couldn't trust the rides at off-brand NJ parks to be safe, they've got a long track record of bad things happening. They were vindicated a few years later after a tragedy involving a kid on a roller coaster I really wanted to go on (can't remember which/where, this would have been early-mid 90's). I can't help but feel something's missing from my childhood, though (but it's probably for the best I survived it).
ReplyDelete<span>Wasn't just off-brand, though: Six Flags' Great Adventure had well-publicized accidents on Lightening Loops and the Sarajevo Bobsled ride, not to mention the awful massacre in the Haunted House fire. </span>
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, my parents weren't fans of Six Flags either. But they kinda looked down on it in general, as opposed to just the thrill rides. I actually worked at a Six Flags once (the one in MD). Yeah, I remember that. Day.
ReplyDeleteMy dad can never see that article -- it would be such vindication for him. My older siblings begged to go to Action Park for years (I've never been big on amusement parks so I had no opinion on it) but my dad always said no, it was too dangerous. Guess he was right.
ReplyDeleteBut just for the record, my dad was also the guy who once took all four of us kids to a little trampoline park on LBI, refused to let me go on them since I was "too little," and then allowed my sister and brothers to only jump "right on the X or you'll fly off, hit the pavement and crack your skull open!" I can still remember hanging from the chain link fence watching the big kids jump. Also, I have always had a fear of cracking my skull open. Maybe that's why I never wanted to go to Action Park.