The Wildcatter at Six Flags Over Texas Falls for the Final Time

Tuesday, October 2nd, was a sad day in my life. It was the day that the Wildcatter ride at Six Flags Over Texas was demolished. In the amusement park industry, you will not attract customers without bigger and better rides, especially roller coasters. Even though I understand the reasoning and will probably like the new roller coaster better than the Wildcatter ride, it still makes me sad to lose a piece of my childhood history.

This ride and I have a long history. It started twenty five years ago, when I was only eight. My family and I lived in Arlington, but we were only able to go to Six Flags once every summer. I knew they had opened this new ride called the Cliffhanger. Cliffhanger was right! I was scared to death of this ride. They said you would sit in a car that went straight up ten stories and then you would just drop. I couldn't believe it! Why didn't they just put you in an elevator shaft and push you down? At that time, it was the craziest ride that I had ever heard of. I knew that when my cousins and I went to Six Flags, we were going to ride it. I didn't want to, but there was no way my cousins were going to call me chicken! The line was very long and we had to wait for hours.

The whole time you are in line you are looking straight up at this thing from which you are preparing to plummet. This was before the world of extreme sports and people falling to the earth for the fun of it. For at least two hours we waited in line, during which I wavered from riding to not riding. If I would have had a flower, I would have been plucking the petals saying ride it, ride it not. That was an excruciating time for me! I was not only wavering in my courage, but I had my two cousins giving me a hard time, because they knew that I was scared to death. When we got to the front, I had decided I was going to do this. I had to prove to myself that I could. I got in that contraption, which looked a little like an elevator shaft, and strapped into the seat.

As they started the ride and we began going straight up into the sky, I knew that I had made a terrible mistake. Of course, it was too late. I was stuck! It felt like an elevator, but you were in the open air. You could see all around and feel the wind, which wasn't very good for me. It seemed to take forever! We finally made it to the top and then the car was extended out past the shaft. It seemed like we were suspended in mid air and we just hung there for about three seconds. When the car dropped, our hearts felt like they went into our throats and we lost our breath. Everything stopped except the sensation of falling and not being able to do anything about it. Then we curved onto our backs and slowed down. Slowly, we were returned to our starting position. I had done it! I couldn't believe it, but I made it out alive. One thing I knew, was that I did not like that ride. That first experience was repeated summer after summer after summer. It never got any easier, even if the line did get shorter.

When the park began opening for Holiday in the Park, I was a teenager. Our church youth group would have an activity every winter and go to Six Flags. One particular winter was very eventful concerning this particular ride. Three of my friends and I rode the ride mainly out of habit, but one of the operators was so cute! We rode it seventeen times. I think we spent most of the night at that one ride. We would get off and go get right back in line. That poor guy probably thought we were nuts! Of course, we were fifteen and sixteen, so we probably were nuts. Not one of us managed to get his phone number. I could ride the scariest ride that I have ever ridden, but I couldn't talk to a boy. Oh, well.

I maintained my love-hate relationship with the Cliffhanger until the end. I have never liked the ride, but I couldn't go to Six Flags Over Texas without riding it. I have since gotten married and moved away from my home town, but whenever my husband and I would go to the amusement park, we would ride this ride. It was one thing from my childhood that I was able to share with him. They had changed the name of it to The Wildcatter by then, but it was always The Cliffhanger to me. Of course, there are scarier things to me now, but that was something that I was scared of and faced. I was devastated when I checked my email updates from my local paper back home and saw that it was destroyed. Progress must be made and it is really not very important. It is not like it is a historical landmark or anything, but it was special to me. It was on that ride that I discovered that I could be scared of something, face it and do it anyway. I think that was the first time I knew that I had courage.