I too have a tragic story involving carnival rides but it all I knew my wife loved me.

When I was living in southern California I use to take my wife to the carnival where it showed up. Once taking a trip to a mini-golf place called Castle Park in lovely Riverside, California. I decided to go on a few of the heavy rides. The first up of course is one of my favorites GRAVITRON! While riding this I always get a little messed up but it wore off quickly, then after that we head straight to Thunderbolt! Big mistake, after getting off this one I was completely messed up and my mouth was watering a sure sign of impending doom. But because I was newly married and didn't want to embarrass my wife I soldiered on. Thinking I could just suck it up after going on an easy ride I suggested the swings instead of the tilt-a-whirl. But being a thoughtful husband I sat in the swing behind my wife instead of next to her, just in case.

At first my idea was working, I was calming down, my stomach felt semi-normal again, then the swings started tilting along with going round and round. My stomach was going circles, I was on the brink of puking my guts out all over hundreds of people. By shear will alone I fought the urge to let go for what seemed like hours.

The ride stopped, I quickly unbuckled myself and started staggering toward the exit thinking there would be a nice trashcan there... but there wasn't, quickly looking around I spotted one lurching toward it while resisting the urge my wife asked me whats wrong? I knew if I opened my mouth I would loose it, so I just pushed her back to arms length and pointed at the trashcan in the distance. But my wife didn't understand she just kept getting closer to me and putting her arm around me and saying are you alright? As I lost control I shoved her back and puke my guts out not 6 steps from the swings! The kids started laughing at me about puking on the swings and to make matters worse I drank about 40 gallons of fruit punch in the morning so my rejected breakfast was tinted bright pink.

As I was retching I looked over to see my wife deciding if she should stay or go, this is when I knew she loved me. She came over, helped me up and shielded me from the heckles of kids as we made our way out of the park never to return......

Wow castle park. Small world. I used to go their often, and I mean often. We would drive up from Elsinore to spend the few dollars we had to play games there. When I went it was the Tyler mall next to castle park, not the Galleria.

Back on topic. I cant ride most "thrill rides" anymore either. They make me feel sick. I dont like to be spun around anymore. I dont want to be accelerated to 1,400 mph in 0.3 seconds upside down in the dark with a fog machine and techno music blasting in my ears.

I still like the rather traditional roller coaster, but thats about it.

I loved the crazyiest rides possible when I was younger, but not so much anymore.

Kind of sucks getting old, but its going to happen.

/get off my lawn

I love roller coasters, thrill rides, and all that jazz, but the stupid Tilt-a-Whirl and the Tea Cups have always put my stomach in my throat.

When you said getting old in the title i immediately thought: Getting older means you don't appreciate the rides anymore - which is the case for me. I never had any problems with motion sickness of any kind but over the years i find amusement parks less and less appealing because the rides are just stupid most of the time.

Getting older means getting more grumpy.... i think i'm a ways off that yet though

I can ride all the ridiculous spinning rides I want, but I'm still only 25.

That said.. I've never been able to ride rollercoasters of any kind without spending the entire ride focusing on suppressing the urge to gag and then urk my lunch over the side of the coaster. The stuff that just slings you around really fast doesn't bother me in the slightest, but as soon as you combine a good solid sense of vertigo with all that slamming around I can't do it.

Spinning doesn't effect me at all, I even recover from being dizzy easily.

What does get me, however, is free-fall. I don't even get nauseous, I get terrified. I dunno what it is, I'm sure I have plenty of reasons to be terrified of falling, but I can't really narrow it down. My worst story, however, is the exact opposite of Pharacons.

Going to the State Fair for my then-girlfriend's birthday. Being a large-framed guy, I don't easily fit into a lot of rides, and she was giving me hell for "ruining her fun". So, finally, I decided to ride on the viking ship ride. For those unfamiliar, it swings back and forth, vertically. Eventually it gets up to a right angle, and swings through 180 degrees. There are two sections of seating, facing towards the middle. (The end result being it looks mirrored about the centerline) So, I got on, picked a seat right in the middle, and off we went.

It wasn't too bad at first, I was a little freaked out, and a little paler, but not too bad. Then it picked up speed. Now, I'm really pale anyway, but I was about as white as someone could possibly get. The people in front of me were facing me, and they were concerned I was going to spew all over them. It probably would have been better if I had been able to speak, to say "I'm not ill, at all. Just terrified."

What seemed like hours later, (The longest minute and a half of my entire life thus far.) I finally stumbled off the ride. The first thing my ex said? "Why am I even going out with you?". That's when I knew she needed to go.

Fortunately, my current girlfriend has the same vulnerability to falling as I do.

It's like you're an undiscovered superhero in the style of 'Unbreakable'.... but your vulnerability is being off the ground!

I can still handle the traditional roller coasters and rides but can no longer do the loops. Getting old sucks. I mean seriously sucks. Your bones start creaking, you can't see in the dark, and you have to go to the eye doctor to get fitted for reading glasses. My advice to you young people is to go out in a blaze a glory at 35 or so.

I can still take carnival rides, I just haven't felt the need to after looking closely at the construction and operation of those things throughout the year. I treasure safety, portable carnival rides are definitely not the best things for safety.

Sadly most of these whippersnappers might not get the reference...

What does it say for the young among us that get that immediately?

Soylent Green is people!

Ah.. good old Three Musketeers!

Had Logan known that within another decade his hairline would have receded three inches and that he'd feel the urge to pee about 40 times a day because of his now overactive prostate, I doubt he would have run so quickly from Carousel.

Indeed. That's not the ravages of old age. That's wisdom setting in. When you're young you can ride on fast moving rickety things that are maintained and operated by alcoholic drifters without batting an eyelash.

Geesh, you meen I'm going to get more grumpy? I'm like 10 EXP away from being a hermit as it is.