Word: woodenness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Roller coasters come in two distinct species: wooden and metal. The wooden coasters, contemporary versions of rides of old, are strong, flexible and durable, but they look rickety, thus adding to the terror. Their clacking and creaking are built in, and serve to heighten the sensation of speed...
...Wooden coasters feature careful pacing (a moment's hesitation at the top so that riders can stare into the abyss) and a studied mix of hills large and small, curves wrenching and free-floating...
Each of the wooden coasters has a distinct personality. The Texas Cyclone at Houston's Astroworld is patterned on the Coney Island Cyclone. "It's just a little bigger and a little faster- Texas style," says a proud park official. But it retains the original Cyclone's sheer drops: the first of them, a devastating 53° plunge, bottoms out 92 ft. below the crest. Riders have lost wigs and false teeth in the 60-m.p.h. near freefall. St. Louis' Six Flags boasts the Screamin' Eagle; No. 1 in the Guinness Book of World Records...
Which rides are better? As in all things, it is a matter of taste. Loops and corkscrews probably offer the rawest thrills-unadorned, mind-bending, stomach-stretching terror. Sans a 360° turnover, however, metal coasters are somewhat tame-too quiet and too smooth, and lacking the wooden coaster's capacity to engage the eye and the ear. Riding a wooden roller coaster is like barnstorming in a biplane; a trip in a metal coaster is like flying to Cleveland in a jumbo jet. Both will take you where you want to go-a little bit out of your...
...sticky, hot night, and several hundred people wait on hard wooden benches. Fireflies flicker, and on a small, lighted stage four country-suited musicians quietly fidget. In their midst stands an imposing figure dressed in white and wearing a broad-brimmed hat. "I once played the mandolin all the way from Fort Wayne to Nashville without stopping!" he thunders into a microphone. "Don't nobody think I can't play all night if I want to!" As the crowd cheers, the big man leans forward and madly strums the opening riffs to Orange Blossom Special. Says a woman...