There are moments that truly make people enjoy life. Creation is one of those moments. Yes, you guessed it. I’m talking about joy in a person’s heart, when they create a new term. Just like when a person bums a ride off of a friend who is bumming a ride it’s called double bumming, or if something is exceedingly interesting it is called the cat’s pajamas, now we have coaster hopping.
Today I went to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey* (we will definitely come back to that). I noticed all day long that on the main roller coasters they leave plenty of empty seats each ride. If the tram is a four seater and a group has three people, there is one open seat. Sometimes, only two people will sit on a row and there is no other group of two around. Same thing with the carts that have only two seats. Sometimes only one person will be on a row. This could easily be fixed with a singles line, but this park doesn’t seem to do that. So the idea: When getting off the roller coaster, be slow. Be the last one off so that the other people are already filling in the seats. Then they close the gates and no more people can come get on. If there are any open seats, just go sit down. They won’t kick you off, especially if you’ve already put the seat belt down, and it would have just been an empty seat anyways, so you’re not depriving anyone else of their turn. You can do this for as many rides as there are open seats, sometimes 4 or 5 or 6 times in a row. Coaster hopping, try it.
Back to Six Flags. It was a wonderful amusement park and I’m glad they have it up here. However,I found it funny to be going to a Six Flags outside of Texas. I have grown up going to Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, Astroworld in Houston, and my favorite, Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. Granted I still remember the days when it was just Fiesta Texas and not Six Flags, but it’s alright to add on the Six Flags because it’s in Texas. Six Flags, the company was started in Arlington (next to Dallas and Fort Worth). It was named Six Flags Over Texas because of the six flags that flew over Texas, or the six countries that ruled Texas. They are: Spain (1519-1685; 1690-1821), France (1685-1690), Mexico (1821-1836), Republic of Texas (1836-1845), Confederate States of America (1861-1865), United States of America (1845-1861; 1865- Present).
I also notice they are starting a Texas Chili Restaurant a few blocks from our Church, so once again, and thanks be to God, no matter where you go, Texas has made its mark.
