The summer of 1995 took me on two grand adventures so memorable that my four-year old brain was able to retain memories from them. But before I tell you tales of the first, I have to plant some imagery in your mind. Imagine you're in an American grocery store. You've managed to find all your needed groceries and are now waiting in the long and seemingly never ending checkout line. You're tired and maybe a bit hungry too. As you near the counter, there before you are chocolate bars piled high and wide. Your mouth begins to water as you see that ever familiar name on the wrappers. Hershey. The options are plenty. Hershey's milk chocolate, Hershey's dark chocolate, Hershey's with Almonds, Hershey's Cookie's N Creme, Reese's peanut butter cups, KitKat bars, etc. The American marketing ploy has you hook, line, and sinker with placing it's chocolatey goodness right where you have to be knowing there's a good chance you add that extra item not included on your shopping list to your cart. But when it tastes that good, it's too hard to resist. You finally make it back to your car, load it up with your grocery haul, and plop yourself in the driver's seat. But before you start the engine, you retrieve that delectable chocolate bar and take a soothing bite. Delicious.
If you've never had a Hershey's candy bar, I hope that intro gave you an idea of what they're like. And living in the USA, Hershey's and chocolate are synonymous with each other. But the reason it's incredibly special to me is there is a city in Pennsylvania called Hershey. It was only an hour from where I grew up and it was named after Milton Hershey, the inventor of the Hershey bar. The city of Hershey took things a step above their chocolate factory and built an amusement park there known as Hershey Park. I was going to experience it for the first time in the summer of 1995.
With Becca and Zeke in town for the summer, Al & Sue thought it would be fun to take the grandkids and their friends to the Sweetest Place on Earth. Ten of us, Becca, Zeke, Chalene, Cam, Joe, myself, Al, Sue, and Tom & Sandy (Chalene & Cam's parents) were bound for Hershey. The car ride was a little over an hour, which can be an eternity for a four year-old, but once the towering silhouettes of the roller coasters and giant swing rides came into view, my dopamine levels spiked and the lingering boredom of the trip vanished.
Upon arrival, we didn't enter through the main gates right away. Hershey Park had a side attraction known as Chocolate World. For a small entry fee you sat in an open train car as it took you through the process of how Hershey's chocolate was made. As you sat in this train car, you passed by large video screens displaying the chocolate making process with a narrator voice explaining it. At one point, the train cars pulled you through an oven-like structure that was a little warm inside to make you feel like you were the chocolate getting baked. At the end of the tour there were smiling staff handing out a free normal sized chocolate bar to everyone. I saw normal because years later it was more cost-effective to hand out the tiny fun-size bars instead. Before I continue, I must share with you actual evidence of what I just described.
Photo courtesy of Chalene
This is what the chocolate world experience looked like in 1995. From left to right in the front: Chalene, Joe, Cam, Me, Zeke, and Becca. Back: Al, Sue, Tom, and Sandy. This photo disappeared from my life a long time ago, but resurfaced in 2016 on a memorable night that I'll be sure to include in when we get to that point.
Entering the main gate of Hershey Park in the eyes of a child is like entering a dream. I was greeted by and dancing Hershey bar and high fived a large smiling Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Happy music filled the air, old fashioned candy store houses lined the entrance, and giant scales with candy bars as height requirements for rides beckoned you to step on them.
My senses were on overload. The excitement kept building. The rides and all their mechanical clatter were calling out to me. Being a group of little kids, you could probably guess that we were not headed to the roller coasters. The first thing I remember riding was the carousel. It was big, flashy, and played cool theme park music, just like the movies. Once mounted on my trusty steed, my imagination ran wild as I saw myself in a fierce race to overtake everyone in front of me. I was just about to win when the ride came to a halt. I wanted another run, but there were more rides to try out so off we went.
The rest of that morning was spent crashing bumper cars, spinning around on crowns and saucers, and moving invisible dirt on tiny bulldozers. We took a break for lunch and then it was off to the water rides. Here's the thing. If any part of a ride seemed scary to me, I refused to do it. Most of the rides I could see the whole thing from start to finish. But there were some exceptions. One of them being Canyon River Rapids. From the spectator's view, it was an 8 person raft that ran through a fast moving river. Yet you could only see part of the river and all you could see was the calmer parts. It didn't look so bad and since I wasn't riding alone, I agreed to go. Both myself and the ride operator made sure I was buckled in tight. Then the raft was released and off we went. Nothing scary appeared in the first minute or two and it was actually fun going through the rapids...that is until we rounded a devious bend and my face dropped in sheer terror. Giant walls of water roared over rock faces, crashing into the rapids with a violent force. If there was ever a time in my young life that I was going to wet my pants unintentionally, this was it. With no way to stop the raft and no way to escape, I gripped the center wheel tight and braced for impact. WHOOSH! My section of the raft turned right into the first waterfall and soaked me to the core. My brain was in panic mode and I began bawling as waterfall after waterfall clobbered our helpless raft. All the adults and some of the older kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, but not I. As we neared the end of the onslaught, Sue tried to comfort me telling me that Joe was having fun. I stopped crying and saw that he had his head aimed directly down and in between his outstretched arms. I tried that trick through the rest of the ride and once we made it out alive, the initial fear I had began to evaporate.
The rest of the afternoon was going pretty well as no more scary water rides came into play. After taking a short break on a bench, the group decided to go on one more water ride before dinner. I wasn't so sure about this one as I couldn't see the full ride. But Sue convinced me it was just a simple boat ride. Her, Al, Joe, and I all got into a boat. Sue playfully splashed the water with her hand as the boat went through what appeared to be a relaxing water course. Then it made a sharp turn. Suddenly, we weren't very low to the ground anymore. I had been tricked. This boat ride was anything but simple. A behemoth of a drop stared me down knowing that in a matter of seconds, we'd be going straight over it. The boat took a dive and I clutched to the sides for dear life. My teeth were clenched so hard I couldn't scream. The rush of the wind on my face kept me from blinking. Before I could even process what happened, it was over. For those few seconds, I was terrified, but it was over so fast that the fear couldn't overtake me and my mind said "that wasn't so bad." To this day however, I'm still salty I was conned into a "simple boat ride".
Dinner was next on the agenda and we got burgers and fries. Becca and Zeke wanted to get those massive souvenir drinking containers with a long straw. They had all the candy mascots plastering the outside of the giant mug. I was in awe of those things. The adults made sure before we left that we all took a bathroom break. Once re-grouped we were making our way towards the next ride when Becca started freaking out. Apparently she left her souvenir cup on the table and not with an adult. The cleaning people turned over tables fast so they scooped it up in their cleaning efforts. Becca was so distraught that Al decided to get her another one but she'd have to carry it the rest of the day except when on rides.
One of my favorite rides as a kid was the Wild West train that looped around the Wild West zone. We hopped on it as an easy after dinner ride. The train took you through all these cool areas with mechanical cowboys and indians greeting you along the way. At one point, it took you on an elevated track that went through trees. In the distance, there were fake above ground graves that had fake skeletons coming out of them. I thought these were cool. Another of my favorite rides was the old fashioned cars. They were secured on a track that the riders had no control over, but as a kid, I couldn't tell that and thought I was actually driving a car.
As the sun was setting, we decided to head back to the water rides and ride the "simple boat ride" again. Even though I had been on it once, once was enough for me and I sat with Al and watched as everyone else had a blast going down a few more times.
The magical day would not have been complete if we didn't stop by the arcade and game stands near then entrance. If you've never been to an amusement park and never seen this section, when the sun goes down, it's the place to be. Flashing, colorful lights, zany sounds, vendors calling you forward to try to win some incredible prizes, people walking with large stuffed animals, so on and so forth. We all wandered into a large arcade. Each of us was given a few tokens to play a couple games. I recall the crimson red numbers on the skee-ball machine. They displayed a high score challenging you to beat it. I knew I stood no chance, but that didn't matter. I had a blast rolling those little balls up that ramp and into the white cups. With each game played, the machine released tickets depending on how well you did. Those tickets could then be exchanged for prizes. I think I earned enough to get some candy, but I remember Cam ended up getting a small stuffed clown. The only reason I believe this memory is burned into my brain is because on the tram ride back to our cars, he played with it the whole way back and made it do some pretty goofy stuff.
The very last thing I recall is being half awake and half asleep as Al carried me up those concrete steps of my new house and transferred me into my parents arms. Today, I realize what an effort it can be to bring a four year-old to an amusement park, let alone six in total. But ultimately I'm glad they did because going to my first amusement park with my best friends is a memory I'll cherish for my entire life. I did mention at the beginning that this was one of two big adventures I went on in the summer of 1995. In the next chapter, I'll take you on a journey to the ocean by a city. Ocean City.
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