Summer is upon us, so it's time to get outside and do summery things. Today, Christine and JJ take their cues from the weather, the season, and some listener requests, and put their summer hats on. First, they head to the cabin to explore the forest, the trees, and the dappled sun. Then, they journey to the fair to stroll the midway and hit some roller coasters. All through the power of description-rich conversation!
Summer is upon us, so it's time to get outside and do summery things. Today, Christine and JJ take their cues from the weather, the season, and some listener requests, and put their summer hats on. First, they head to the cabin to explore the forest, the trees, and the dappled sun. Then, they journey to the fair to stroll the midway and hit some roller coasters. All through the power of description-rich conversation!
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt.
Christine Malec:Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt:And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to me, where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashed out in description rich conversations
Christine Malec:It's summertime, it is so. So summertime here where we are in Toronto and summer is the time for fairs and forests. What a lovely phrase. So today we're going to talk about some of the things that you see in the summertime. And we thought we'd break it down in that way. And we got started thinking about this actually us a couple of months ago, JJ, you had gone for a little retreat off to Nova Scotia, where you have a cabin, and you found an uprooted tree and various things going on there. That sounded pretty wild. And it got us thinking about the visuals of just being in a forest and the things that you would see there that don't often get described in detail. I don't even know where nature documentaries, take this stuff. And so I believe there was a carcass involved with deer as well. I don't know where we want to start there. But there was was there a big tree uprooted? Was that where the conversation started?
JJ Hunt:Yeah. So on our tiny little piece of property that we've got in Nova Scotia in the soil is very, very shallow, and there are lots of trees, lots of big tall pines like 100 foot tall pines. But their roots are very shallow because the soil is very shallow. It's all it's all slate under there. And so what happens is if there's a windstorm and a tree blows over, which happens somewhat regularly, the tree will, you know, the trees will come down and bring it's you know, people often talk about a root ball under a tree. But these aren't really root balls, they're more like root discs, because they don't go deep. All the roots are shallow, so the tree will fall. And it will bring with it this disk of of roots. And what you can see is like you can go around behind it once the trees down, and you can see what's underneath, you can see the underside of the root system. It's awesome. And so we had this happens regularly with small trees, but we had a big tree come down so big, in fact, that it took down three or four other trees with it, not because it hit them. But because the roots are so interconnected. The only thing that's keeping these trees rooted, as it were to the ground is not that they're deep in the soil, it's that they're all connected with each other, they're over there laced together. And so when this tree came down and pulled up its root disk, it pulled up two or three other root discs with it. And so we we walked around with our cameras and put on our our rubber boots. So we could like stomp around in that slightly damp pit that was left, left underneath. And we explored the underside of these root discs was awesome.
Christine Malec:So when those trees were standing, how high up? Would you have to go up the trunk to the first branch?
JJ Hunt:Oh, very good question. So of these 100 foot tall pines, you probably have to go, you know, 70 or 80 feet before you get the kind of canopy of the tree that the tree top there'll be an occasional branch sticking out here or there. But the real, you know, the part of the pine tree that looks like a Christmas tree is you know, maybe 70 feet up on 100 foot pine. And so that's the other cool part of this is that you could walk the now length of that tree because it's lying flat on the ground. And you could get to the tree tops. So you could see the tree tops on the ground. Yes, that was really neat. That you know, very, very lush and green. This was still you know, this one huge tree was still looked very healthy and alive. So the top of the tree was still very green. And it really did look like a Christmas tree on top. You know very green, the needles were very vibrant and lots of tiny, tiny pine cones on the top of the tree and, and you know, reasonably dense the branches were reasonably packed, reasonably well packed together. And there's a there's a freshness there's a newness to the to the top of the tree. Not only are the needles green, but they're they're new and small. It's more vibrant than a lot of the other branches because they're just they're new and fresh.
Christine Malec:And so what did it look like when you walked and looked underneath the root disk?
JJ Hunt:So, so you're standing in a shallow that's like literally maybe, you know, eight inches deep, it really is not very deep at all. So you're standing on slate and mud, that's, you know, that's on the ground. In fact, a few little tiny saplings had already started coming up this month, we knew someone had been to the, to the cabin, I think it was two weeks before we'd gotten there, and that tree hadn't been down. So it this was really new, this has only been two weeks. And they're already a few little saplings growing out of the mud, right. And I know really cool. And in fact, some saplings had grown out from the root system as well. So coming straight out of the root disk, and pointing like making a right hand turn and going straight up into the cloud. Yeah, really cool. So the underside of the disc, it's this kind of lacing together of roots. So the roots are pretty thick when they're closest to the tree and then they taper and get more you know, they get thinner and narrower and, and they kind of sneak off and join this criss crossing. Net, this this web of roots, let's maybe start with the top of it. Normally when you're seeing because you can see some of those roots when they are exposed on the ground, and they're kind of mossy, and the bark is somewhat thicker even on the roots because they it has to be tougher because it's it's exposed to the air and there are people and animals who are you know, walking on this. So the you know, it gets a bit of a thicker skin as it were moss on the top. But when you look on the underside, it's it's again a little bit more raw. So the bark isn't as thick on these roots. There isn't the moss coverage on on these routes, dark browns and and then inside kind of like more kind of pale beige colors, if they were if you if any of that bark was was scraped away very thin. And yeah, this web. The other thing that was really interesting again, a lot of the ground is covered in moss, there was a flap of moss that had been pulled up as well as the so the disc comes flying up and is now vertical, but it had tugged a flap of moss off of another part of the forest floor. And it was hanging down like a flap of skin. And so you could lift up this like sheet. It was like bigger than a tablecloth, you could lift it up and it's this just a sheet of moss it really really cool. And again under there you're getting, you're seeing a couple of bugs and things crawling around in there. And in some twigs. And there were some odd things that were found in there too, like little tiny bits of, of stone and shale and bone in a couple places just like things that had that the forest floor had managed to kind of swallow up.
Christine Malec:There's been a lot of articles and talk in the last few years about the fungus network that exists in the root systems of forests. And is this something that's visible to the eye when you see an uprooted tree?
JJ Hunt:Yeah, definitely. So my wife Lois has read a few of these fantastic books that have been out and so she's constantly giving us mushroom facts, whatever. The kids like to tease her about that on another mushroom. Okay, here we go another mushroom fact. And so because she's read this stuff recently, she's got it on her brain, she is able to pick out all kinds of things like oh, that mushroom there. That one has a net work underground. That is however big it is, you know, because a soccer field or what I can't remember the facts of this, that's her department. But sometimes you get even just like a little tiny, tiny bit of fungus popping up. And sometimes they have the cap on him like a you know, kind of traditional cartoon mushroom. But sometimes they look more like little trumpets, little flutes. Sometimes they look like bundled together. straws, almost very, very thin straws that get packed in tight. And they might have little balls on top of them perhaps. And yeah, when the when you get to see the underside. Again, not only are you seeing the underside of the root systems, but you're of the tree but you're seeing some of that root system of the mycelium, right? You're seeing what looks like very fine hairs that are in fact the roots for the mushrooms.
Christine Malec:One thing I've wondered about is when you're in a forest, the look of the forest or the light or just the ambience if it's coniferous versus deciduous, so that's needles and cones versus broad leaves and does it create a different ambiance or a different feel or a different look in a forest?
JJ Hunt:It does, yeah, I was thinking about this. As I was walking through the city this morning and knowing that we were going to be covering this on the podcast today. One of the things that's interesting about walking in the woods is, you never know what's gonna lie ahead, like what's around the next corner. And there's a real variety in in the forest, if you choose to tune into it. It's kind of like listening to birdsong. If you want, you can just, you know, sit in your lawn chair in your backyard and listen to the birds sing and just let it be the background. It's just birdsong. If you choose, you can concentrate on one bird or another or listen to calls and responses. And you can kind of pay a little bit more attention. And you can find this the specifics within that within the birdsong and it's kind of like that in the woods. If you want, you can just go for a walk in the woods. And as a sighted person who's taking in the world visually, you can just let it all be green. And and enjoy that for what it is that there's just greenery all around. But if you choose to kind of tune into it a little bit, then you do start to see the differences between being in a in a hardwood forest versus being in a hemlock forest, for example, right, the differences are there if you choose to take them in. So for example, in in a hardwood forests, so you've got stands of things like maples, and birch and ash and beech, there's a variety of trees, so the shapes of the leaves are different. And the branches on the on those trees are different too. So the way the light comes through those branches and those leaves, the dappling of the light on the forest floor is going to be different. And in the forest floor will be covered with those leaves, not with dry needles, for example. So the ground is going to have ferns and green ground cover. Maybe shrubs when there are some small clearings in the in the spring, there will be flowering plants, so little flowers popping up on the forest floor. And then of course, in the fall, you've got all the all the colors of the leaves in the fall in a in a hardwood forest like that. And it tends to be depending on how thick that forest is, it might be quite a warm forest because a fair amount of sunlight might be getting through that canopy. Whereas if you're in something like a hemlock forest and hemlocks are awesome, we've got some great Hemlock stands in Nova Scotia near our cabin, and the hemlock are great big trees with high high tears of these twisted branches. The older they get, the more twisted the branches get. So they're wonderful for kind of standing under and looking up at the at the branches because they look like gnarled hands of like, you know, cartoon witches. All these branches overhead and, and hemlocks block out most of the sunlight. If you've got a big, thick stand of old hemlocks, a lot of the sun gets blocked out by that canopy, so the temperature drop is really noticeable. It's quite a bit cooler, and the hemlocks like acidic soil. So what happens is the hemlocks which are blocking out the sun, so there's not a lot of sun getting down to grow things on the ground. They drop all their needles and their needles, you know, when they get to the ground, they're there, they turn brown, and they're very acidic, they make the soil acidic, and that's too acidic for most other plants. So the forest floor in a hemlock stand is pretty bare. There aren't a lot of ferns, there's not a lot of green ground cover. And of course, there are no leaves. There's just this kind of thick blanket of dry needles. And so you've got a completely different experience. But I've been on a walk in a forest like that, that has a hemlock stand and then has some more hardwoods and whatever. And and I've gone through a walk like that for an hour and not paid any attention to any of it just enjoyed the cool air and and just enjoyed the green all around. And then I've gone on that walk. And on another day when I'm in a different headspace, and really noted those things like oh, wow, the ground covers completely changed. Whoa, it's gotten really cool in here. Why is that? That so you can you can kind of tune in and tune out as it were to those changes in the forest.
Christine Malec:One of the things that's come up several times is what it's like for a sighted person to be in. If you normally are in an urban environment, which in Canada, 80% of us live in cities. So you know, that's most Canadians, when you get out of that environment, what happens to your eyes and your field of view. And we've talked about this a lot because it's something I had never thought about or known about until you raised it that once you get out of the city, it's just restful to look out a window and look far away because you don't often get to It'll be looking far away in the city and what happens to that kind of view in a forest? Because there's still trees around. But there's the prospect of seeing through the trees. And is it still restful on the eye in the same way as looking, say across a lake?
JJ Hunt:Yeah, it's interesting. So I definitely find that whole experience to be restful for the eyes. And it's a little bit hard to just pluck out the sight part of the restfulness, you know, the depth of field, but I think it's definitely part of it, especially when you take in, you know, the whole experience, say, if you're camping for a weekend, you're and you're away for a bit of time in the in the woods, the opportunity for like, a varied Field of View experience. Most of us, as you say, in cities, we're spending a lot of our time indoors. And even more specifically on screens. So our field of view is what, 18 Inches two feet, that's it, if you get up and you walk around your room, how far away is that, you know, the furthest wall will be eight feet 10 feet, where our field of view is nothing, even if you go for a walk outside and you walk down the street, the other side of the streets only 20 feet away, we're just not getting that, that that range of field of view. Whereas when you are in the forest, yes, the trees might be close to you. But you can look down the path that you can stand on the edge of a lake and you can look across the lake or if you get a break in the trees, you can look up to the top of some of those trees and you can see the canopy up top so your eyes get that there's more varied. And then there's also the close ups. If you are like if you're just sitting under a tree and a little inchworm crawls up onto your finger and literally like squeezes its body into you know, into a little hump shape and then stretches itself out to move along your finger inches along bit by bit, there's more of a feels like anyway, there's more invitation to look close at things to look at a leaf and and find the vein patterns within that green leaf. Or check out the bark on a tree and see how the bark on a on a tree like a hemlock that is really thick and peels off in chunks of very woody, gray brown bark, and how that's different from the papery white bark that you can you know peel off all the way around a birch tree that has fallen and then use that you know birch bark to light your fire those you get a different opportunity for a close up experiences like looking at things in you know, really tight and close to your eyes. And then, you know sitting back at night and seeing stars way up in the sky seeing them the Milky Way, which is an experience that most of us don't have any more if we live in the city. And you get that varied field of view that you know your field of view over a weekend being in the forest or camping or something like that. The variety of experiences for your eyes is much more varied than for most of us living our day to day lives in the city.
Christine Malec:Oh my gosh I'm so you've totally evoked the smell of sun warmed pine needles to me it's alive in my head now. I need a vacation so badly! I can't wait for my vacation.
JJ Hunt:Heh heh heh!
Christine Malec:So let's bring it a bit back to two more densely people spots and talk about I guess we'll call it the summer fair. So my experience of this living in Toronto is a Canadian National Exhibition. And that's a spot down by the lake that for two to three weeks at the end of each summer. It was the official, you know, close of the summer season and you looked forward to that day when your your mom or your family you'd go to the x and you do all the things that you do there and I you know, I thought it was all in the past and you know, oh what a nice childhood memory and a few years ago I went to a concert that happened to be down there and to get through it to where the vent from the venue. We walked we just our route took us through the Midway and I could not believe the sensory just like I was eight years old again. I was overwhelmed overpowering sensory and that's without the visuals. I was just like the the the you know the games and the rides and Barker's I guess you call them yelling out for the game they in the to those wheels that they span and half of it I don't even know what it is but the sensory experience was just unbelievably powerful. I was completely transformed. Did back two to eight years old and even even as a non sighted person, the difference between day and night was, you know, really notable noticeable and I think my mom did this on purpose she wouldn't let us go on rides or play games until it got dark like until Twilight and it just gave it this whole other mystique of like, wait, you know all the boring shopping bull crap you know, I didn't care about during the day so much but the Midway was was where it was at for me. And so there's, you know, the visuals of that I I never really got them all unpacked and of course, the rides, which I didn't care that much that much about the game. So it was all about the rides and the roller coasters for me. So I we actually did have requests for roller coaster descriptions, right?
JJ Hunt:Yeah, someone requested roller coaster description what I'm totally down for. I mean, the whole experience of being at a fair or a carnival or whatever is is fantastic. And as you say, like, you were a thrill seeker, like as a kid, you would go on all these.
Christine Malec:I was game.
JJ Hunt:I was two and I haven't I haven't been back in a while. That's not entirely true a few years ago, after our you know, we'd gone to the time when we were taking our little kids to the, to the fair. And then they were offered their grandparents one weekend. And again, Lois and I were walking downtown. And we just happened across the X the sixth, you know, the CNE, and we're like, we don't have the kids with us. But that doesn't mean we can't go right. So the two of us went in just ourselves without our kids and again, as you say, acted like kids, and tried to go on a few of the rides. But yeah, my stomach didn't handle it quite the same way as a guy in my mid 40s!
Christine Malec:You know what, JJ, I'm not convinced of what the reason for that is because I had the chance to go on some of those specific rides in like my, you know, call it 15 years ago, I wasn't scared like roller coaster scared, I was scared, like, this thing's gonna collapse under me like a pile of matchsticks. Like it felt temporary. In a way I didn't notice when I was eight years old, I can tell you, Well, that is a difference between permanent and temporary, that's for sure. That was the big fear for me was like this thing is gonna collapse like deck of cards.
JJ Hunt:Absolutely. And visually, that those the difference between a, like a permanent roller coaster and a temporary roller coaster is stark. So when you're approaching a roller coaster at something like I don't know. For us, it's Canada's Wonderland, but a Disney World or something like that. Those are very solid structures. Permanent roller coasters are solid. These days, not many of them are made with wood, although if you can find a wood one, those are those are pretty fun to the clickety, clack, wooden roller coasters, but mostly they're big, big, big pieces of steel beams and bars and posts and they're bolted together. And then not only they bolted together, but they're painted on top, which gives it a really solid look. So if you've got something that's bolted, welded, and then painted, it just looks, it looks like one solid piece. Whereas if you were at a at a at a temporary fair, that's only in town for a week. And you see that those same kinds of connections. Yes, they're bolted, but they're bolted in such a way that is, first of all easily accessible, right? Because someone's got to get in there and put and put those bolts through and take those bolts off in a week. So they're not hidden away, they're not tucked inside, those bolts are on the outside, so they're clearly visible to anyone walking by. and the ground is always a little bit different. It's not like a poured concrete surface is sometimes these are in fields or you know, whatever, older parking lots even when there are potholes. And so these roller coasters that are more temporary, or rides that are more temporary, are often leveled with concrete blocks and slabs of woods, like the legs of these things, it looks like oh, you know, I'm gonna shove another slab under this one. And you're gonna see all this, it looks so temporary. And you can see the tool marks on the holes, there'll be scraped from, you know, from being on it. So you can visually as you're approaching some of these roller coasters and rides, you can see how temporary they are. But you know what, that's part of the fun of these roller coasters is the approach right? When you are as a sighted person, and I'm really curious to hear your experience on these. But as a sighted person, when you're approaching a roller coaster, you're checking it out. So where are the hills? Where are the loops? Where are the twists, use, you see all of that in advance. For the most part, almost all roller coasters are outdoors so you can see those things. And you can anticipate and the anticipation you know doesn't end when the ride begins. The anticipation continues throughout. So you know you're climbing the big hill at the beginning and click as you get higher and higher and higher. And you can see that the top is Hamming the top is getting closer, it's closer, it's closer. So not only can you feel that in your body, but if you're if you're someone who's taking in the world visually, you're looking at that there's the anticipation of that big first drop. And then you know, as you're whipping around the ride, you're just catching glimpses. It's really hard as a sighted person to watch everything while you're on the ride. If you film it, then obviously the cameras still rolling. It's a little bumpy and shaky, but it's still rolling. Whereas if you're on that ride, your eyes are probably close. Sometimes it's so shaky that you're not always seeing everything in a smooth way. You're getting glimpses. Also, you're turning a corner. Oh, there's the glimpse of the loop de loops up ahead or your corkscrewing down. It's like, oh, how is this going to end? I can't see the real me now you're off. So those those moments of visual anticipation are kind of built into the roller coaster experience leading up to it. And then during it as well, how does that work for you? When you're on a roller coaster? What are those moments of anticipation like for you?
Christine Malec:Yeah, so I was always secretly kind of put out because, you know, we'd be walking up to the roller coaster, my sighted friends or my family, like, you can tell their heads all look through their hearing up and their little, oh, well, it's gonna. And they'd start sentences and then not finish them because they're distracted by looking at and I just give up, like, Whatever, whatever is gonna happen happens. And, you know, that's part of probably where I develop my fatalistic streak is because no one can give you a sense of what's really going to happen. And I always kind of secretly wanted a model. And I felt secretly grumpy that like, you guys got to at least know what's coming. You think you're brave? Hey, don't try not knowing what's coming. So 100% exercise and just like going with the flow?
JJ Hunt:Yeah, yeah, I've only been on one roller coaster that was truly in the dark in Disney, they've got Space Mountain, at least they did when I was a kid. And it's an indoor roller coaster, so they can turn out the lights. And that's the only time I've had that experience. And I 100% with you this not knowing what's coming, not knowing when the next turn is not knowing when the drop is coming. Frankly, especially for sighted people who are not used to that kind of experience. The fear is, is delightful in that in that situation, but it's serious, like, not knowing is, oh,
Christine Malec:I'm a bit surprised, actually, that sighted people would tolerate that, that as many people would, you know, accept that as as seem to I didn't realize that. That one was fully indoor. Like there's one here. A Canada's one Thunder Mountain, I think it's called and part of it's inside. And I never actually thought about that, that you don't see what's coming, but it's only part of it. I didn't know there was whole roller coasters where you don't have a clue. And yeah, frankly, I'm, I'm a bit surprised that that's even part I get that is terrifying. I'm surprised as many people are willing to tolerate that.
JJ Hunt:Yeah, it's an interesting one. And I mean, they do have like lights within it, which are very strategically designed, you know, you zip by here and that looks like a starry sky or there's some what looks like lasers, you know, zipping by your, your field of view. So like there are those kinds of light actions and effect I remember at one point, and this might just be my my memory, you know, embellishing but I remember at one point as your as your roller coaster train is zipping along, another passed upside down in front of you not close enough that you won't be anywhere near danger, but it happens so quickly. And they flashed some lights at that moment. So you just get this flash like you're you know, like look how close you are to it. Yeah, no idea that they were even there. You could hear other people screaming because there are two or three different cars going through this roller coaster at any given time. And you could hear people in the distance is echoey kind of way off in the corner you know something's going on over there. Yeah, really interesting. But yet the lighting is is different and I love that you're that you were encouraged to go on these rides at dusk are in the dark as opposed to during the day because the lights change how the Midway feels the energy on the Midway the energy on these rides changes dramatically when there's lighting.
Christine Malec:Explain I know it I feel I felt it but I don't know why. Well I feel it or was it just me like it's Can you explain that?
JJ Hunt:Well, I mean, the energy would be I can it doesn't surprise me like you even if you're not seeing the physical lights, you're responding to the energy of those who are right and so the walking down a midway during the day is a little can be a little bit like going into a bar or a nightclub. At two o'clock in the afternoon when all the house lights are on. Like I said you See all those, you know, slabs of concrete that are holding up the rides and you can get, you know too much of a look at the garbage can behind this cotton candy booth, right? Like it highlights all of those things whereas at night it's only the bright and shiny lights that they want you to see. So the like the popcorn stand, which was really simple and had a yellow sign with the red, you know, very tattoo letters, popcorn across the top and Candy Apple signs and whatever those signs are there during the day, but at night, They're glowing. So the red letters pop and there are probably like rows of light bulbs, all like actual light bulbs, not LEDs, but like bulbs that are glowing all around and maybe they're moving the lights flicker. So it looks like the you know, the lights are going around and around and around the signs and, and oh yeah, lots of little kind of tricks with the lights and then the lights inside. All of those booths are always very, very bright. So there's a spill, that happens. So every little booth creates its own spill of light. And again, all the games are the same. So you've got a game tent, and there are bright bright lights underneath the tent shining down so that all the stuffed animals look like they're glowing. So every booth along the path along that Midway is going to be bright. And again, the the colors of Carnival signs tend to be extremely bright and simple yellows, reds, and blues primary colors really, really bright and joyful. And then the rides themselves. So like if you've got like a Ferris wheel or something again, during the day, it's made of metal, maybe the little ferris wheel, you buckets or whatever that you get that you sit in, they get carried around. Maybe they're painted red or green or rainbow colors, whatever they're bright, but then at night there, they're probably going to be lined with lights so that each little carriage eats little bucket that goes around and around this ferris wheel it has lights on it or maybe it does have some twinkling LEDs on it now and the spokes on the Ferris wheel was during the day those spokes just look like metal spokes, like the spokes on a bicycle wheel. Now they've probably got like, again, Christmas tree style lights, long lines of lights that go from the center of the wheel to the edge. And maybe they go in a pattern in and out in and out in and out. So everything is lit up. Everything is garish, everything is bright. And that's all so there's that, you know, the darkness, you know, is a little bit more mysterious. It's cooler, so people are not you know their energies up a little bit more because they're not sweaty and yeah, all of those things fold into, you know, an uproarious visual experience at the carnival or fair.
Christine Malec:Do they ever arrange it so that when you're lining up for a ride, you see the people coming off of it? Because I'm wondering about the facial expressions and like have you ever seen anyone puke?
JJ Hunt:They do. I mean, sometimes it's funny, different fairs and carnivals, they do it slightly different ways, right? Sometimes there's side by side, like the entrance and the exit is basically side by side. And so you get to see everyone coming off. And people either being, you know, huffing and puffing and sharing those smiles and laughs and like, oh my god, did you see that moment? Oh, I almost fainted, whatever. Or you get to see them race over to the garbage can and get rid of the jumbo hotdogs that they got before I have seen it but then other experiences are different. So again, I've been to Disneyland or Disney World where they have a different way of using their lines. Disney, at least in the past has been amazing at making the lineups part of the experience. So as you are moving through the line, there's set dressings and in your it's part of the theme that like for that Space Mountain one, for example, you would go through and there'd be images of space on the wall and it would it would treat you like you were an astronaut in a training scenario. So there's images and in like, NASA style, propaganda posters on the wall like that kind of thing. If you were in the haunted house at Disneyland or Disney World, you're you're making your way through parts of the house as the lineup like that's the line. So the the lineup is part of the experience and you're separated from the people who are exiting, it's a totally, then the exit has its own experience probably through the gift shop, right. So the permanent rides are, in my experience have been at least in some places are are different and more involved. Whereas it's all about the efficiency when you're at the at the local fare you Probably going to enter and exit through the same clanking, a temporary steel gate that the carny side by side,
Christine Malec:Do you have a favorite personal memory of a roller coaster ride that you really like?
JJ Hunt:Oh, okay. When I was a kid, there was a ride at the CNE was called the Rotor. And it was basically -
Christine Malec:Oh that spinny thing.
JJ Hunt:That's right.
Christine Malec:Where you paste yourself to the wall. That one? That was your favourite? Ok that's weird choice. I've never heard anyone say that's their favorite.
JJ Hunt:Ha ha ha! It was my favorite because I'm four years older than my brother. And so when I was maybe 12, and my brother was eight, we went on this thing together. And yeah, so it's basically it's a it's like a tub that spins. And the walls are kind of like a black rubber material. So that when it spins you your body gets pressed against the wall, and then the this like corrugated steel floor drops out from underneath you. Yep, I remeber it well. And you're left spinning and spinning, right? Yeah, really super fun. So my brother and I go on this. I'm 12. He's eight. We start spinning and spinning. We're pressed against the wall. It's awesome. It's hilarious. The floor starts starts to drop. It's fun. It's hilarious. We're laughing and laughing. I reached over and grabbed my brother's arm and spun him upside down. His head was facing the floor. We're pointing at the ceiling had the strength to do that. And my poor little brother didn't. The floor comes back up. And my brother's doing a handstand as the floor. I thought that was hilarious. My brother didn't think it was as funny and I really certainly don't think my parents thought it was as amusing when we exited the ride. And my brother had something to say to my parents about my behavior in there. I was only 12! Bad choice.
Christine Malec:Admitted it, you'd do it to your kids, wouldn't you?
JJ Hunt:Never! They're bigger than me now they've been doing it to me. Ha ha!
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