Kids' Day at Riverview Part 1 of 2 Parts "A Kid’s Day at the Park” By Ed Fruh (Written in the voice of a 13 year old) This is Saturday and school will be out in one week. Today is the day we are going to Riverview. Running down the street to meet my friend, Bill, I had better count my available funds to be sure I have plenty for the day, Let’s see, Mom gave me 50 cents, I had some left over from Grandma's birthday card and my allowance makes it just over one dollar. Great. First on the Racine street car to 69th Street. Transfer there, then up to Western. This trip is a “stop at every corner ride” That’s O.K. that’s the way it was. It was a long trip and when the lookout spotted the tower of the Pair-o- Chutes jetting up to the sky, we knew we were getting close. Hearts began to beat a little faster. Then, the motorman would say - “Riverview” - We made it! I was special. I had a free pass in my hand allowing free admission to the park. I felt very proud getting in the PASS ONLY line. Hey! It looks like everyone in the city got the same free pass. Oh well, that’s the way it was. Once Inside the gate and joining hundreds of other fun-seekers we could see the train of the Silver Flash. “Can you hear the clinking of the chain?” Bill said. What a sight to see the shiny cars going up the first hill. A quick stop in the penny arcade, that’s where the restrooms were, and we were on our way. The Dodgem had a new front. You could smell the ozone from the wipers on top of the polls as the cars raced around. At the end of the ride some inaudible voice came through the loud speaker. You knew it was the end of the ride anyway. They shut off the power, the cars stopped, you got out. It was great fun bumping the other kids with our own car. Later, when they invent the expressways, we can say we had our training right here on the Dodgem. A rail ride was always in order. Beautiful train to ride. You could see some of the new rides and plan the day. Hey look! Aladdin got his face painted. Sitting down in our seat on the Blue Streak was exciting. A man pushed a big wooden lever and the train began to roll. Down into a dark musty tunnel and around to the bottom of the lift hill. You knew you were safe because of the shiny stainless steel mesh over your head. This was good but the best was still to come. No! I’m not going to try to get that ping-pong ball into the little fish bowl. Good Gosh! What would I do if I won the darn fish? Even more stupid was fishing with a net and catching a rubber duck with a number on his belly. Just to see what stuff you had won. Yuck. The Palace of Wonders was a place we could go if it started to rain. Always planning for the unexpected, there were other shelters previously arranged for a rain delay. Speaking of funky smells, if you wanted to find out what 50 year old canvas smelled like, you took a spin on the Caterpillar. This was a very old ride. I think it has been here since the beginning of the park. Round and round you would go when all of a sudden a canvas cover slowly came up over your head. From the midway, it was supposed to look like, You guessed it, a Caterpillar. I remember a couple of fans resting on the ground and blowing through the mesh floor. Never did figure out what that was supposed to be. continued in Part 2