Hi, this is Rick Cogley from Yokohama, Japan.

This is just a companion quick podcast to go with the German Swings post that I just made today.

Basically, it’s just a story.

When I was a kid in the 70s, we used to go to the Nags Head area in North Carolina to go to the beach every year or every other year.

There were carnivals set up here and there.

We would stop sometimes.

Basically, the kids would all be like, yeah, let’s go to the carnival, let’s go to the carnival and kind of begging to go.

One time we went and there were German Swings.

If you’ve ever been on those or know what they are, they’re essentially just a bunch of swings attached to a big rotating disc.

It’s kind of like a Ferris wheel, but on its side.

The idea is it swings pretty quickly and the swings are sort of thrown out by centrifugal force.

Anyway, it’s a lot of fun.

However, one time we were on these things and the ride was just going on and on.

We’re starting to get kind of sick from the ride.

We’re like, what the heck is going on?

We’re starting to yell and cry for help or whatever.

Finally, our parents went and found the operator who I think had gone to the bathroom or something like that and kind of either forgot or just spaced out that we were still on the ride.

This kid, he was basically not much older than we were.

He came running back and he was kind of panicking and he kind of slammed on the brakes.

The swings, of course, wrapped around the center pillar or column of this ride and it really slammed us into the middle, basically.

This was just a terrible sort of situation.

We all got slammed into the middle and I pulled my arms in, I guess just as a reaction really.

I pulled my arms in and managed to not get injured too badly, save from a couple of bruises.

Anyway, long story short, when I look at German swings these days, they kind of freak me out and I just don’t want to ever go on them again.

I feel anxious when I’m even near them.