Posted 8/16/21
Happy Monday, folks! It is going to be a great week! I hope you embrace the week and enjoy all that can be enjoyed this week as well. 🙂 Don’t let folks torpedo your week by making Monday worse than it really is. This week has so much potential!
Speaking of torpedo…today’s topic is Rube Dugan’s Diving Bell. Here is a short video about it from TPF!Travel Plus:
Here is an ** affiliate link for Mark Kumming’s book that was written to discuss this wonderful ride:
One of my favorite things to do as a kid with my family is visit Silver Dollar City, and this tradition continues today with my own kids. In fact, we just went this weekend and I bought a new fridge magnet for my collection that celebrates my favorite SDC ride of all time: Rube Dugan’s Diving Bell.
Here is another wonderful video about this:
Here is another cool video of the history of the park including a reference to the Diving Bell at just after the 17:00 mark:
I can remember “riding” the Diving Bell with mom and dad. I was a little chap, around 9-10ish and experiencing something like this with your parents was particularly exciting. Backtracking a bit…In case you didn’t watch the above videos…or in case the links break…The Diving Bell was an early interactive ride that was housed in the lake at Silver Dollar City. About 20-25 people would “descend” into the old time “submarine” room structure in search of lost treasure. They had bad guy who was also searching for the lost treasure and there was a massive battle against him and his crew. Everything was streamed on the projectors on the walls and you really felt like you were under water…especially as a kid. 🙂 The ride shook, and swayed and leaked water when you hit the underwater mine. Really exciting and memorable. Many of the fellow riders were brought into the drama as volunteers to pump out water and/or other roles. It was simply a blast…until they took it out. I assume it was removed because there wasn’t enough space for a ride that could only serve a couple of dozen at a time, but with a price tag of over a million dollars (at Jimmy Carter rates), I am still surprised they couldn’t keep it afloat, if you will. Here are a few reflections of this wonderful ride with a dementia filter on top:
- Vulnerability– As a child, one of the most important attributes you feel about your parent is their desire and ability to keep you safe. Even though I was a strappin’ young man at that tender age, I remember stepping back and watching my folks pumping or doing something else in there to keep this simulated ride safe…and it warmed my heart. I wouldn’t have admitted that, though, because that was sissy…but I certainly felt it. I can also remember flopping on the couch in a Saturday morning with my dad watching (and belly laughing) Looney Tunes. I was little…probably really young at the first recollection, but I remember putting my head on my dad’s chest and hearing his heartbeat and knowing things would be ok. I remember hearing mom and dad belly laughing at Johnny Carson when I should be asleep and the same feeling came over me then as the previous two situations: the feeling of things being as they should be. This is, simply, one of the hardest parts of seeing mom struggling these days…knowing that one of my anchor parents will soon be gone. (It, in a small way, also calls to mind the peace of Christ compared to the fear of His crew just before He calmed the sea in this story. One of the central aspects of the family is that stability…I was not “less than” my parents, but I had a different role on the Diving Bell…and the comfort that game me was immeasurable.)
- Shared experiences are more valuable than gifts– I wish I would have figured this fact out sooner in life. Please learn from my failure. I can only remember a couple of the many gifts I was given in my childhood, but I can remember soooo many shared experiences with my family. We went to the creek, we attended Cardinals games, we played sports together, we went on walks…we lived life together. That makes me smile now at 50 much more than tangible things they gave us. Maybe my love language is time, I don’t know…but I know that these experiences are the most bright spot of my childhood. I don’t mean to make this piece unnecessarily sad, but mom would ask for, over and over again, when she first started struggling about 5-6 years ago, was “Why don’t we all get together at the park for a picnic?” Oftentimes she would invite me multiple times in the same conversation. I let the repeated nature of the request override the importance of the request. She knew infinitely better than I did how bad she was struggling and wanted to fill her brain with these experiences as best she could. She knew what was important and I lost it in the delivery…and the guilt I feel now may never go away.
- It takes a team. Silver Dollar City is masterful at team activities. They do shows and have little events and the like everywhere and feed off each other sooo well. The train ride also comes to mind…here is a link to see it. (Spoiler alert). The Diving Bell’s team was very memorable. Here is a picture I found on Flikr that shows these amazing actors:
If I have told you once, I have told you 1,000 times…build a team should you see dementia on the horizon for you or a loved one. It is too hard to go it alone. You need some pumping water, others looking for the bad guys, and others keeping the peace, just like the ole Bell. Trust me…the more help you can get, the better.
- Don’t know what you have until it is gone. When the Diving Bell was dismantled in favor of The Lost River of the Ozarks…which was dismantled to make Mystic Falls today… at both times it felt like progress. The two latter rides are/were amazing and thrilled many more folks in a day. I get the feeling that getting as many people through an experience is critical in an amusement park. I get it. We want to speed up life so we can shoehorn as much into the day as possible. I appreciate the concept. However, please, please, please, never lose sight of the importance of living in the now. You never know when that experience will be the last opportunity you have. Sure, doing big things is awesome…but never forget the little things like visiting your neighbor with dementia. Never…
I still miss the ole Diving Bell. I even miss the fact that when you were leaving the ride, one of the crew members would give you a genuine silver (looking) coin as a souvenir of your adventure! So many folks will never experience it and trying to explain it loses a lot in translation. I also miss sharing such with mom. We need to blow this stinking disease out of the water, folks, before millions of folks’ memories, like the ride, vanish into history…
#EndALZ
No new news on mom’s condition. I hope to hear from hospice today and will be visiting her tomorrow. Keep fighting for a cure. 🙂
**If you buy this book (or anything on Amazon) using my link above and choose SeniorAge Area Agency on Aging, Amazon makes a small donation that helps us greatly. 🙂
Another great link:
