Six Flags Over "not so" Magic Mountain - a rant

Contrary to what I try to tell myself sometimes, I believe, once and for all now, that it's official. I'm old. I know, I know, how can such a young at heart, vibrant, full of life individual such as myself feel old? Well, try spending a full day at Magic Mountain with your kids...14, 15 and 21. It ain't easy friends!

Let me elaborate a little to give you some insight as to why I've made this horrible realization of the "old factor" creeping into my life. It's not that the walking around, standing in line, going up and down stairs all day had anything to do with it. I think it had everything to do with the place in general. Magic Mountain never makes the claim (at least on their web site) of being a family friendly theme park - good thing! It is anything but. (Although, in general, I would think that most people equate the two....theme park, and family friendly that is....)

The first indicator that Magic Mountain might have had some troubles in the past is the Sheriff Sub Station at the entrance. No, I'm not kidding...you get off the tram that brings you to the front gate from the parking lot, and there it is, the Sheriff Sub Station, complete with uniformed officers, squad cars, you name it, the whole nine yards. I guess I didn't think too much of it at first...that is until I actually got into the park - after passing through security to check my purse, and the metal detector. I didn't have a problem with any of that, in light of things going on in our society today, but it is hard to grasp the concept of family friendly - theme park- metal detector - Sheriff's officers....that is, until I saw the clientele of the place. (This is where I start sounding really old...hey, I warned you.) The place was crawling with "hoodlums." It's the best word I could come up with, although "gang bangers" crossed my mind. Magic Mountain does have a policy against wearing gang colors, so nothing was too obvious, but the under lying tone was right there, lying very, very close to the surface. Groups of young people swarmed every inch of the place, and I'm not talking about the groups from schools, celebrating 8th grade promotions, senior ditch days, etc. I'm talking about other types of groups. Those out looking for no good, making obnoxious fools out of themselves, using the "F" word, among others, so often that a sentence wasn't said without it. The park's "language" policy meant nothing to these people. "Guests using profanity or abusive language, symbols or gestures may be ejected from the Park without refund." Yeah, right. If they enforced that rule, seriously, the place would have been pretty much empty. Now, I am, by no means a prude, and have been known, every once in a while, to spout off a bit at the mouth myself, and have even been compared, at times, to a "sailor" or a "truck driver." But seriously folks, the people at M.M. were just over the top. Rude, obnoxious, crude, gross young people. It made me just a little sad. At the risk of sounding even older....I think our country is in serious trouble if this is the youth that will be taking over some day. Ok...I'll try to climb down off my soapbox now.

The other things that made me feel seriously old yesterday were the rides. I discovered, (although I pretty much already knew this part) and reconfirmed that I am not a roller coaster person. AT ALL. Oh, sure, I'm good with the old classics like the Matterhorn and Space Mountain at Disneyland, but the crazy ones that whip you around, and upside down, like a wet noodle...not for me. This park is full of them. Everything from Tatsu, to Batman, Scream, Revolution, Superman, Viper, and a handful of others I can't think of (there goes the memory now...) Those things are crazy - CRAZY! I was getting queasy just looking at them. No thanks. I did manage to get talked into going on a couple of the big rides. Ninja and Colossus. Never again. Seriously. Never....E V E R again. There were a couple of rides I did enjoy. The tram back to the car, and this....

This was, by far, my favorite ride at the whole park....kinda pathetic, huh? Hey, I keep telling you, I'm old.

Anyway...below are a couple of other pictures from our day. Enjoy!

One last note...as I'd like to leave this subject on a positive...the park was actually cleaner than I thought it would be, and there were a lot of security guards around, so we did feel relatively safe. I hadn't been in this park since I was about 15 years old....a long...LONG....L O N G time ago, and I'm pretty positive it will be an even longer time before I ever go again...