Glasses vs Skirt vs Survival

I just now tossed a top of mine in the washer. It's about as old as my marriage. That will be 39 years in July. I still wear the top and I look like a hippy with bad taste when I wear it. But it's still good and I can not bear to throw it away. It is something a free spirit would wear. It flies freely in the breeze and makes me feel like a wind nymph. But that's not the story. The top just reminded me of something totally unrelated.

I was an early teen. I know because I was wearing my first pair of "cat eye" glasses. When we went places, I didn't wear jeans. I wore skirts and blouses mostly. I remember I was wearing this beautiful, super full skirt. It was flowered with beautiful purple and blue shades of color. It must have been the bluish color of my hippy top that reminded me of that beautiful, beautiful, homemade skirt.

We went to an amusement park. It must have been "Joy Land" in Wichita, because "Worlds of Fun" didn't open until 1973. The ride I chose to ride was the "Big Dipper". If it wasn't named that, it should have been. It used the same principle as a skateboard bowl, only the ride had a track with a cart on it wherein you sat. There were no seat belts. The dipper was fastened to a mechanism that tipped back and forth causing the cart to dip down and fly up the other side just in time for the thing to tip again, and down and up we went to the other side. Back and forth we went. I was screaming and laughing and spit went flying out my mouth. I don't know what law of physics I was battling, but every time we dipped down going forward, my glasses would fly off if I didn't hang on to them, plus my skirt would fly over my head. So there I was trying to hold on to my glasses, hang on for dear life, and hold my skirt down. I had to have my glasses to see, and I couldn't let go of whatever I was holding on to because I might go flying out of my seat. The skirt, she would just have to fly. Well at least it was over my head and no one could see who I was. Ride over, I was exhausted. All that laughing, and holding on, and trying to maintain some degree of modesty by holding my skirt down nearly did me in. We rode lots of things, but that's the only one that sticks in my mind. I hadn't thought of this in years. Well, back to the laundry.