Action Park

This was a fun read! I never went to Action Park but I'd heard bits and pieces about it online. About how, as this book's subtitle implies, it was “America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park.” The author is one of the sons of Gene Mulvihill, the park's founder and person who designed a lot of the rides at the park despite not having like, an engineering degree. Anyway, Andy is obviously a little defensive and protective of his father's legacy, pointing out that a lot of injured park guests had been drinking heavily or not following the rules etc, and also that maybe some of Action Park's reputation was slightly un-earned since bigger parks like Disneyland paid more money to hush up the accidents (including fatalities) that happen at those parks too.

But also this park still sounds chaotic AF. Anyway, if you're interested in reading about this wack park I'd recommend it. It's not the kind of memoir where the prose is particularly stunning or anything, but it's an overall fun read. (He does talk some about the trauma of being a young lifeguard there and not being able to save people from the extremely over-powered wave pool. Which: yeah, yikes!)