Throwback Thursday

This one is a two-fer -- La Ronde, an amusement park in Montreal and Glass Tiger, the band.

La Ronde has been open in Montreal almost as long as I've been alive. It was always there, somewhere to aspire to go to, though I don't know why I always wanted to go - I've hated the 'scary' rides forever. Maybe it was because it wasn't something we every did, but for once or twice that I can remember. Who knows. But it's on an island just off Montreal. You can take the metro all the way there and you can walk around the island, too, just wander through the greenery (I remember doing that more than actually going to La Ronde).

I see that it's a six flags amusement park now - it didn't used to be. It was independent when it first opened.

Anyway. I remember a few things about it. I remember the Ferris Wheel. I remember the big monster wooden roller coaster and I remember seeing Glass Tiger perform there when I was in my late teens.

The Ferris Wheel was always my favourite ride at amusement parks, although I haven't been on one in a long time and I think my fear of heights has gotten more intense and I'd probably not enjoy it were I to get on one now. But when I was a kid I loved them. I especially loved the view from the top and La Ronde has a fantastic ferris wheel -- good and high, and with an amazing view.

The other ride I really enjoyed was the one where you stand on the inside of a circle and the whole thing spins and then the bottom drops down a few feet so there's nothing but the centrifugal force holding you against the wall. Then the circle goes up and down and on its side and stuff. I loved that one. The last time I was on one like that, though, it made me throw up and I haven't been on it again.

I'm more into the gentler rides now and definitely hate the scarier ones.

That brings us to the roller coaster. I have never liked roller coasters. There's the height thing. There's the jerking you around thing. There's the looks like you're going to go flying off into space thing just before you get jerked around. They legitimately scare me.

Well, the one at La Ronde is called The Monster and it's a huge wooden contraption. It creaks as you slowly go up the first big hill. Like honest to goodness creaks! Like the roller coaster isn't scary enough without it sounding like the whole thing is going to collapse underneath you!

The few times I have gone on a roller coaster, I spend the entire time frozen with my hands white-knuckled around the safety bar. And as soon as we start really moving, I am screaming, not for fun, but in sheer terror.

So honestly, amusement parks are not for me. It's not like there are very many rides that I'm actually willing to go on.

I knew this when I was in my late teens, but I went quite willingly one more time to La Ronde (and it's actually the last time I was there). Glass  Tiger was doing a concert there. Does anyone else remember Glass Tiger? Especially the Canadians reading?  I had their album The Thin Red Line and I loved it. I had both the vinyl album and the cassette, which I played in my walkman, over and over and over until the thing disintegrated. I loved that album. Especially Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone, which has a chorus to belt out along with the band. I might have to go have a listen -- I have that album on my iTunes now.

So they were playing and the tickets were the same price as it was to get into La Ronde in the first place and were good for admission, all the rides you could do in a day and the concert. It was a ridiculously good deal. $17.50 plus tax. And I was in the fourth row next to the center aisle! Bests deal ever.

I haven't been to many concerts, I don't do crowds very easily, but this one was definitely the most intimate one that wasn't in a bar. (I should talk about sitting on the equipment boxes beside the stage at the Cher concert in Sydney sometime, or seeing Rawlings Cross at this tiny bar in Ottawa. and Chris DeBurg in Montreal where he did a third and clearly unplanned encore as the lights came up and the roadies began to break down the stage... ah, memories...)

"Don't forget me when I'm gone, my heart would break. I have loved you for so long, It's all I can take...."


Sean
smut fixes everything