I remember going to San José’s long gone Frontier Village amusement park with my younger brother and my 11-years younger youngest cousin. He’s even more afraid of heights than I am. He was terrified of scary things too. We took him on a ferris wheel with him sitting in the middle, I thought the ride would be okay since it just goes up and around, but he was still frightened.
A few years later, I took him with a coworker to see one of the Indiana Jones movies and he insisted on sitting in the middle – good thing it wasn’t a date!
;–)
And another time, my aunts took him and me to Six Flags Great America amusement park in the Chicagoland area. He would have been around 12 or so by then. He refused to go on just about any the rides! He had to be convinced to go on the ‘whitewater rapids’ ride where you’re sitting with a dozen others in a giant round rubber raft. And on the gondola ride over the park, he had a deathtrap on the central pole!
Looking back, I’m surprised he wanted to spend time with me when more than half the times I saw him we were doing things that scared him out of his wits! We live on opposite coasts and never saw each other very often. He was the only cousin I ever bought gifts for on christmas. But he was the first cousin I Came Out to, when he was around 18. He was more like a nephew than cousin because he is so much younger – he was practice for when my brothers started having kids.
;–)
When he was younger, and even into his teens, he was a extraordinarily skinny kid with long, thin limbs. Now in his very late 40s, he’s gotten very large! He’s at least 50% heavier than I am!
;–)