R.I.P: Cedar Point's Space Spiral

I was a little heartbroken earlier this week.  An icon from the summers of my early twenties came crashing (literally) down. 

When I was in college, I spent my summers working at Cedar Point (America's Rockin Roller Coast!).  The actual work was sometimes grueling, and embarrassing, and some dignity may have been lost, but those were some of the best summers I had.  When I explain about my summers there, the person I'm talking to usually looks back at me with a face that says, "Really?  Working at what sounds like a labor camp doesn't sound appealing at all.  Why would anyone work there?"  And that person would have a valid point.  Yes, I'd work 60+ hours a week outside, in the hottest temperatures of the year, but those 60+ hours a week were spent with your best friends.  That's what made the whole job worthwhile.  Working there helped me make friends with people I never would've met otherwise.  We were all stuck in the same place, doing pretty much manual labor, why not make the most of it and have fun?  Once the work day was over, everyone would party, live it up, go to sleep, work 12-14 hours, then, party again.

One of the summers, I worked with my best friend from home, at a ferris wheel.  It was the "Giant Wheel Triangle" because there were two additional rides:  Troika, a spinning ride, and the Space Spiral, an observation tower of sorts.  Our jobs were to pretty much run the rides. They weren't the most thrilling of rides, but hey, we still got our share of fun.   But seeing Space Spiral go down brought up all those fond memories of not only that summer, but of all my Cedar Point summers.

I have so many stories from those days.  I'm sure I have enough content for a full book, which I was seriously considering doing.  It would've been called, "Secrets of a Carny," or something along those lines.  I could write a full chapter just about the different types of vomit I've seen or about the park guests that get upset because a ride is closed due to weather or that the line is too long.  And I'm sure at some point, I'll share those stories, whether it be a little at a time or all at once.

But for now, I'll end it with this video of Space Spiral imploding to make room for a new roller coaster, which does look really awesome by the way.  It's shown on the video after Space Spiral falls.  And I guess if you have to go, then this is the way to do it.