dougdrummer Posted July 22, 2017 Report Share Posted July 22, 2017 (edited) Scott's trip report documenting how he stopped at the park on the way home from Delaware sparked a memory I have from over 30 years ago. Sorry there are no details or photos, but I hope you get a laugh out of this story anyway. I grew up in Westchester County NY. In 1983 my older brother took a job in the Philadelphia area and moved there permanently. That summer, his good friend and I decided to drive down from NY to visit him for the weekend. After the visit, we began driving back to NY about midday on Sunday. As we were coming up the NJ Turnpike, we saw the big sign for Great Adventure at exit 7A, and said to each other - let's stop by the park! Well, we ended up staying there well past dark before we left and hit the road again, probably around closing time. I don't remember much about the visit or what rides we rode that day, other than we must have been having fun to want to stay that long. Because we were having such a good time, we pretty much lost track of time. I probably didn't get home until close to midnight by the time his friend dropped me off. As I walked into the house, my father was standing there with this angry expression that could have melted a glacier. "Where have you been all this time??? Your mother has been worried sick! We even called the police to see if they had any accident reports on you." They weren't upset that I decided to change plans, but that I didn't call to tell them what was going on. MY mother was really a worrier when it came to this type of thing, and couldn't sleep until we were home safe and sound. I wasn't expecting that reaction! I was generally a good and responsible kid, but I have always been one to exert my independence, and this wasn't the first 'incident' I had with my parents as I was growing up. I heard an earful from my parents that night for at least an hour, and to this day my brothers still tease me with the much exaggerated "remember when mom and dad called in the S.W.A.T. team to find you?" line. LOL Today, young kids couldn't probably relate well to this story, but you have to remember back in 1983 there were no cell phones or texting capabilities. Calling long distance from a public phone booth was a royal pain in the butt. The collect call system was expensive and annoying. And remember, I was independent and didn't even think that I had to let my parents know of my detour in plans. So what if I said I'd be home early afternoon but didn't get there until midnight! I reflect upon this story now that my kids are the age I was back then. If they "disappeared" for 10 hours I'd get worried too. Fortunately they do not test their parents like I did. And technology allows you to spend all of 10 second texting someone to let them know what is going on. Sometimes we have the opposite occur, where my kids will call or text us way too often, interrupting OUR plans and annoying us in the process. LOL Edited July 22, 2017 by dougdrummer 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott Posted July 22, 2017 Report Share Posted July 22, 2017 LOL thats a great memory. Now even being chastized probably brings a smile. Can you believe that is 34 years ago? And like you said, tech has come a long way in that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daved Thomson Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 I experienced similar events as a teenager, but it wasn't the cost of calling home to my parents to let them know where I was and that I would be late or even the option of calling collect. Looking back, I now know the reason I didn't call was because my mother or father, in all likehood, would have told me to get home then. Had I not returned immediately after calling, I would have walked in the door and been chastised for not doing as I was told and being late as well. By not calling and simply coming in late, I could always come up with some excuse or crazy line as to why I was late. While the odds of them buying the story were not very good, there was still a chance that they might. Had they, I would have avoided, first, having to be told to get home now (and obeying) as well as the criticism for being home late (which was coming whether I had called or not). Importantly, this worked for me many times, but only because I was the youngest of five kids and my parents had dealt with much worse from my older siblings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
29yrswithaGApass Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 I too have a late night Great Adventure story from 1983! One Friday afternoon a girl from high school and I decided we were going to go to Great Adventure and see the Beach Boys concert at the park. That was back in the day when the acts put on two concerts one at 7 and one a 10PM. My parents had gone away for the weekend so I let my older sister know I was going to be home late after the concert. I guess I should have given her more details because we went to the 10PM concert and then stuck around the park afterwards to hit up some rides, especially the newly opened Parachuter's Perch. It didn't help that the park was open until 2AM, but the real problem came about when an accident on 537 closed the roads and I didn't get home until about 3:30AM. When I stepped onto my front porch I was met by my livid sister who ranted for about half an hour. Oddly, the next morning things were back to normal. I didn't stay out so late because my parents weren't home - they would have let me, But they would have wanted a phone call too. That was probably the best night I ever spent at the park and I totally lost track of the time - at least until we were stuck in traffic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrummer Posted July 23, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 (edited) I experienced similar events as a teenager, but it wasn't the cost of calling home to my parents to let them know where I was and that I would be late or even the option of calling collect. Looking back, I now know the reason I didn't call was because my mother or father, in all likehood, would have told me to get home then. Had I not returned immediately after calling, I would have walked in the door and been chastised for not doing as I was told and being late as well. By not calling and simply coming in late, I could always come up with some excuse or crazy line as to why I was late. While the odds of them buying the story were not very good, there was still a chance that they might. Had they, I would have avoided, first, having to be told to get home now (and obeying) as well as the criticism for being home late (which was coming whether I had called or not). Importantly, this worked for me many times, but only because I was the youngest of five kids and my parents had dealt with much worse from my older siblings. I think I had the advantage of being 21 at the time, and had been away at college for three years. If I were younger they probably would have told me to come home if I had called. As an example back in high school, I planned to join my buddies on a weekend trip to a shore house on Long Island. But when the guys pulled up in their van to pick me up, my one idiot friend pulled out several cases of beers in order to rearrange things in the vehicle. My parents saw the beer and went off the deep end, and my ticket to the beach was immediately VOIDED. lol Edited July 23, 2017 by dougdrummer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TylerRRC1972 Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 "Sorry about that, wrong Mister Pickford altogether" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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