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Excerpted from This Is the Way It Was, by Robert H. Reardon. (Copyright © 1991 Warner Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Church of God Ministries, Inc.) 53-54 The length of mother’s long hair, which fell to her waist, caused other problems besides regular headaches. Near our house at 4627 Moncrief, in North Denver, was a nationally known amusement park. Elitch’s Gardens was known for its magnificent dahlias and its terrifying roller coaster. Since mother was interested in the former, and my brother and I in the latter, we schemed to entice her into this den of iniquity one week while father was away. After patiently observing the flowers, we guided mother to the roller coaster.
After a lengthy pleading and assurances of pleasures and safety mother agreed to go, with the provision we go together and that she choose the seat. We were pleased when she chose the first seat. I can still recall the long ascent to the top of the first incline—highest, they said, west of the Mississippi. Mother’s fears were put to rest as we ascended upward with a fantastic view of the city and the Rocky Mountains to the west.
Then for a moment we hung over the abyss, followed by a gut-wrenching dive downward, passengers screaming, holding on for dear life. On and on we went, skyrocketing upward, plunging downward on this hair-raising ride. I looked at mother. Her hairpins had come loose, and her hair was streaming out behind, and she was crying to the Almighty for mercy. We led her, somewhat shaken, to a quiet place after the ride was over. There she swore to God that never, no never, would she ever put herself into such a contraption of the devil again. She never repeated this experience to father
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A Little Bit of Humor from Our History by Dr. Robert Reardon
When I was thirteen I was conscious that there were other heavenly places [besides church]. |