{"id":2466,"date":"2007-06-28T02:35:30","date_gmt":"2007-06-28T10:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2007\/06\/would_you_let_your_grandparent_--_or_even_some_elderly_neighbor_--_on_that_thing.html"},"modified":"2007-06-28T02:35:30","modified_gmt":"2007-06-28T10:35:30","slug":"would_you_let_y","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/06\/would_you_let_y.html","title":{"rendered":"Would You Let Your Grandparent — Or Even Some Elderly Neighbor — On That Thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh my god, that first drop is a doozy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Two octogenarian thrill-seekers rode the famed Coney Island roller coaster yesterday as part of its 80th birthday celebration.<\/p>\n

“It’s the masterpiece of all wooden coasters. You can’t tell what it’s like by looking at it. You have to ride it,” said an elated Ed Murman, 81, of Smithtown, L.I.<\/p>\n

Murman hadn’t been on the Cyclone since he was 13, before America entered World War II.<\/p>\n

“On this coaster, you get some airtime. It feels like it’s throwing you out,” said Murman, who has braved the twists and turns of about 500 other coasters as a member of the American Coaster Enthusiasts team.<\/p>\n

Louis Picariello, 81, of Bellingham, Mass., was so flustered by the Cyclone yesterday that he grappled for the words to describe how he felt.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what I am saying I am so excited,” he gushed before pumping his fists in the air, demanding another ride.<\/p>\n

Murman and Picariello were both stationed in the South Pacific during World War II, but they didn’t meet until they joined the roller coaster enthusiasts group.<\/p>\n

They each took several rides on the Cyclone yesterday, escorted by Miss Cyclone 2007, Angie Pontani.<\/p>\n

Sy Weisberg, 80, of Brooklyn, was also scheduled to ride the coaster yesterday, but his doctor advised him against going on the 110-second ride, which has replicas all over the world.<\/p>\n

Still, Weisberg didn’t miss the opportunity to go to Coney Island, where he flirted and danced with shapely stilt walkers as the Sugar Tone Brass Band played big band tunes. “I’m not throwing in the chips yet,” he said.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Nothing against Miss Subways<\/a>, but Angie Pontani<\/a> is kind of sexier. That said, I still don’t think I’d feel comfortable with putting her next to my grandfather on the first car of the Cyclone.)<\/p>\n

Location Scout: The Cyclone<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh my god, that first drop is a doozy: Two octogenarian thrill-seekers rode the famed Coney Island roller coaster yesterday as part of its 80th birthday celebration. “It’s the masterpiece of all wooden coasters. You can’t tell what it’s like by looking at it. You have to ride it,” said an elated Ed Murman, 81, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brooklyn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}