The following entry is a extension to a previous article entitled (Carousel Capers). That entry was merely an introduction into the chaotic experience that surrounded me in those 7 months while working at a local amusement park in Riverside, California. This entry serves the purpose of describing various experiences that I encountered and as usual the names of said people have been changed to “protect the innocent”. Please note: I use “innocent” lightly.

Every shift I was assigned a new ride to operate which meant new faces and almost guaranteed a fresh experience. More often than not I was assigned the “Cyclone Racer” which received accolodes for it’s engineering. What I mean is the ride was basically a Merry-Go-Round that reached a top speed of around 25 MPH. For the customers this meant a dizzying experience that either meant one of two things; sickness or missing items. The ride went two directions; forward and backward and I’d wait for even the slightest murmur from the occupants. A murmur eventually turned into “Stop the Ride!” at which point I would cease the machine and jump off the control platform.

The distance from the control room to the ride was about 3-4 feet and surrounding the machine was a medal platform which I nicknamed the “medal moat”. Whenever I would cease the ride I would cringe because usually this meant a stream of mess that would naturally cover the entire circumfrence. It was, as you can imagine a repulsive sight but resulted in shutting down the ride for several minutes to an hour. For the rest of the public this was a ghastly sight considering the Cyclone Racer was one of the favorite rides at the park.

In fact it was a favorite among employees as well because of the pay off which was the result of someone losing their belongings. Most of the time the employees would find purses that had been flung from the gravity of the ride. These were goldmines as far as they were concerned because after they would empty the contents (credit cards, gas cards, etc.) they would use these for their own personal desires and sometimes even purchase items for other employees. They had the audacity to steal and simply return the emptied purse to the lost and found at which point they would proclaim that most of the contents had spilled out.

Needless to say, Cyclone Racer was an interesting experience and one that I found myself not becoming involved in.
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In Pirate-related news:

“Archaeologists are investigating whether a burned shipwreck off the North Carolina coast is the remains of the last ship captured by the pirate Blackbeard.

A nonprofit marine archaeology and exploration team announced in July that it had found the shipwreck in Ocracoke Inlet, along the state’s barrier islands.

Officials with Surface Interval Diving Company have said the wreckage could also be that of a Civil War-era vessel burned by retreating Confederate officers in 1861.”

Read the rest of the article at CBSNews.

From the website, rareybird.com the introduction reads:

“In 1942 my father, George Rarey, a young cartoonist and commercial artist, was drafted into the Army Air Corps. He flew a P-47 before he drove a car. During his service he kept a cartoon journal of the daily life of the fighter pilots. A few weeks after D-Day he was killed in combat over France.

His journals are a part of his legacy to me - one that I want to share with others through this web page. Browse through his drawings and words. Their joyful spirit dwarfs the background landscape of war.

George Rarey didn’t care much for his first name and was known exclusively as “Rarey.” (My mother thought Rarey was his first name until they had had several dates.) The exception to this was his fellow pilots. Because he was a few years older than most of the pilots - a ripe old 25 - in the Air Corps he was known as “Dad.”

The drawings on [rareybird.com] have explanatory text contributed by surviving members of the 379th Fighter Squadron, excerpts from Rarey’s letters to his bride (my mother), Betty Lou, as well as from my mother’s memoirs.”

Visit rareybird.com for a unique and inspiring look into the life of a cartoonist and commercial artist during World War 2.

“Cross Inspector Clouseau (the bumbling policeman who inspired DePatie-Freleng’s toon “The Inspector”) with TV’s Maxwell Smart, and throw in a healthy dollop of Plastic Man - and you still won’t quite equal Inspector Gadget.

Gadget was a cartoon cop whose 86 episodes were originally syndicated between 1983 and ‘85, and have been rerun endlessly ever since. In attitude and outlook, he closely resembled the title character of the secret agent sitcom Get Smart — and was even voiced by Get Smart’s star, Don Adams (whose other toon connections include having been the voice of Tennessee Tuxedo). But he went a step farther than Max by having all those sci-fi accoutrements (which he hasn’t quite mastered the use of) built right into his body. Aided by his niece, Penny (who called him “Uncle Gadget”) and Penny’s dog, Brain, he fought a wide variety of menaces, a majority of which were instigated by the evil organization M.A.D.

Inspector Gadget was never a comic book star, tho he did appear in one Little Golden Book, Inspector Gadget in Africa. Other than that and a prime-time special in the late 1980s, Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas, he remained just a cartoon character in syndicated reruns until well into the 1990s — albeit, a very fondly remembered one. Then, in 1996, The History Channel did a series called Inspector Gadget’s Field Trips, in which the character hosted a show about the history of various parts of the world. And in 1999, he followed in the footsteps of Mr. Magoo and George of the Jungle by appearing in a live-action Disney feature film.

But as that film showed, after all these years, he still hasn’t completely learned to use all his gadgets.” (ref)

Inspector Gadget was one of my favorite cartoons of the mid-80s. It ranked right up there with the Snorks, Gummie Bears, Ducktales, He-Man, GI Joe and the Wuzzles (woo, ooh, yeah). It had everything a kid could ask for; a guy who used gadgets for crime fighting, a girl named Penny and the infamous villian Dr. Claw who never revealed his face. Dr. Claw was my favorite character in the cartoon which was odd considering usually I’d root for the good guy. In the case of Dr. Claw he was just too cool not to like, I mean he had a claw for a hand.

Speaking of Dr. Claw, his face has been finally revealed in the form of a toy that debuted in 1992.