Do not go on the bamboo shooting get soaking wet and then expect to go walk around all day without Thunder River.
SPEAKER_02You remember that? Thunder River with the big you can fit all your friends? If you've made that mistake, that was detrimental to your day, your whole day.
Welcome to Coffee Talk with the Cajun Mamas. Grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and let's dive into real conversations about life, motherhood, and a little inspiration to brighten your day.
SPEAKER_01Welcome back to Coffee Talk with the Cajun Mamas, friends. Oh, we have such a nostalgic episode today. It's a good one. It's good. And it's, you know, it's very specific. So just stick along for the ride, even though if you you may not know exactly what we're talking about, we could sure gonna paint a picture for you, though. Uh yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And surely if you haven't been where we're gonna talk about, you can definitely relate.
SPEAKER_01You will relate to some place in your in your childhood. Okay. But anyway, let's start out by thanking our friend How the Cajun Lady Accent. She is our sponsor for this month. And she has a whole line of Cajun uh seasonings and dips and cracker mixes and spaghetti mix, chili mix, stuff to make your food tasty and some you know easy meals for uh for you, like the spaghetti. I mean, season that ground meat with that noodles, you're done pretty much. Life is too short to eat bland food. And nothing's bland about how. No, no, not at all. She is oh a character, y'all know. Um, so go to how the Cajun LadyAccent.com to check out everything she has there. She's got merch too. If you want a little t-shirt or a hat or something, make sure you subscribe into her emails because she's got a lot of new exciting things coming up. Um, maybe some even some rebranding things happening, new products coming, and you're gonna want to be be an email subscriber to get that knowledge first. Yes. So follow her on all the socials and um go check out what Hal has to offer. And thank you again for being our sponsor.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, Hal.
All right, so today we're gonna be talking about Astro World. Astro World.
SPEAKER_01Everybody in the South Louisiana, yeah, Texas, South Texas, um, even probably the Gulf Coast area knows what Astro World was. This was our six flags, this was our theme park, and it was the destination of the summer. Like we didn't go on vacations a lot. This was like it was a weekend trip or one overnight stay. You got the park, the you were at the park the whole day, you pin a night, and then you go home.
SPEAKER_02You know, that was one time my mom and them brought us, and we went to Astro World, and then the next day we went to Waterworld. A two-day vacation, a two-day, a two-dayer, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then they brought us to Galveston after that. Now that's a vacation. That was fancy. That was a good vacation. That was a great vacation. Oh man, so I have memories of Astro World from the time I was too little to ride anything. Like, there's pictures. My my brother is almost eight years older than me. And then I have cousins that were older than me. So, like, my mama and papa, I don't think I ever went with my mama and papa. Um, my brother definitely did because that there's pictures of it. Of like he was little, and they would take the cousins and go to Astro World. Well, when I was older, I mean still young, I remember going with my mom and daddy, you know, and my brother was there too, but like we would go as a family. Um, and then every year it was like every summer we'd go to Astro. We go to Astro World. And I love riding all the rides, the roller coasters. Uh I would do all that stuff. The scarier, the better.
SPEAKER_02Okay, I was about to say the scary ones too. Oh yeah. I loved all that. Me too. Mm-hmm. I bet you we would be fun on some roller coasters. Oh yeah. Where do y'all go to ride? Don't tell me Disney World. Where do y'all go to ride roller coaster? Besides Disney World. Oh, Dollywood.
SPEAKER_01Dollywood?
SPEAKER_02We ought to go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've been wanting to go to Dollywood.
SPEAKER_02I've never been. Oh, I loved it. I loved it. It was so much fun. It was kind of like Astro World.
SPEAKER_01Oh, really? It has the same feel, kind of.
SPEAKER_02Same vibe.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I have to go then.
SPEAKER_02Same vibe. It was so fun. Probably Silver Dollar City too, but I've never been in Branson. Silver Dollar City. People say they like that. Um, but I like the big coasters. I like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01We gotta go to Does it have different theme sections like Astro World had? You know, like there was like a um a western section, there was like a a snowy mountain type section, and then I can't remember what else. There was several different themes within the case.
SPEAKER_02I can't specifically remember, but I know there was like this piece where or it looked like a little village, and you can go get ice cream, or you can go get you know something to eat, or you know, it was cool. Yeah, like it was definitely all Dolly or all like Appalachian themed, or if there's little mini sections, yeah, yeah, and there was like a kids section that we did, and we brought the the kids, and there was an Appalachian, and then like she has these fun little things to do in between. Oh. So like there's one part of the pork that's like themed, yeah, themed. It was like, I don't know, she had some little things you could beat on, you know, for the little kids. Kind of like at the pork, you know, how they have that little xylophone, but it was like different things.
SPEAKER_01Something to just occupy their time or whatever.
SPEAKER_02So if they didn't ride, there was other things to do. Um, there was the big kid rides. Um, one was like, yeah, they it was there were definitely themed rides. Uh but it was nice to be able to bring the whole family and um there was something for the little. Something for everybody, yeah. But yeah, that's definitely, I feel like you would it would bring me back.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, one day we'll go. Yeah.
No, but I I remember one time um my parents, so I rode the bus in in elementary school, I would ride the bus to and from school. One day my mom and dad picked me up from school, like, and I was like, oh my god, like already. I got checked out of school. They picked me up, and I'm like, what's going on? Like, and uh my mom was like, I don't remember what she told me, but she didn't tell me where we were going. And so it was it was customary, typical when we would go on a trip somewhere, even if we went to Lafayette or whatever, my mama would always say a quick prayer like, Lord, get may may your angels uh provide protection over us or whatever. May your angels get protect us on our trip. And so, like, she prayed, like, and Lord, may your angels guide and protect us on our way to Astro World. And uh, we come on Astro World! Like that was how she told me. Oh man. It gives me the free songs, like what a good childhood memory. Like a core memory. Oh, got checked out of school early, had no idea, was a big surprise. We were on our way, and I'm like, when we go, and she's like, right now. And I'm like, ah, like it was the best. Oh in our Chevy Astro van. Oh my gosh, you had all that leg room. Oh so much. And back in the day, you know, probably against the law, maybe, but we did it anyway. The back seats lay flat, and I I would just go spread out back there and take a nap. My mama would never seat belts all the time. Uh that only happened once that I remember that I can remember where she let me go. Like a like a camper, you know. I mean, yeah, like just if you gotta if they gotta pump the brakes, you you flying somewhere, you know. Um it's totally not safe and I don't recommend it. But the things we did back in the day, you know, whatever. But core core memory, like putting a I guess it was a I don't know, a blanket or something I laid on back there because where they had taken the seats didn't lay flat. Let me just say that. You had to take them out. The seats, like uh the back row, there was like some hooks, hooks, like, and it would get in and you could take the whole seat out. So they took it out. And so I can remember like being uncomfortable where those little hooks were, so I would put a blanket or something there, you know? Like, yeah, on our way to Houston, which three hours seemed like an eternity, you know, in a trip when you're a kid like that. But yeah, I oh man, and we would stay at uh overnight somewhere at a hotel that had a pool, which was a vacation in itself, going somewhere with a pool. The hotel, the a hotel, or it was a motel, even you know, like drive up, but it don't it didn't matter. It didn't matter, it was so exciting, and then going ride all the rides, and then as a teenager, like I'd go youth group trips to Astro World.
That was where we'd go. We and they would have a concert or something. We'd go spend a day at the the uh park and have the concert and then stay a night, go home or something. We never stayed the night with the group. We did once, and but most of the time it was driving back.
SPEAKER_02We okay, so it was the choir sometimes. Like I've gone to Astro World so many times, like when I was that age, you know. And we would go with the choir, like we had to like do live drives and stuff like that to earn money on the trip. And then we get on our big old bus, one with the bathroom, uh-huh. And we would stop in Winnie, Texas at the McDonald's and have breakfast. And then we Who doesn't stop at the McDonald's in Winnie World? In Winnie, Texas. I don't know. Everywhere. And then we'd roll to Astro World and right this before. It's a thing. Yeah, it's a thing. So we always did that. We did that with the Choir and my Uncle Glenn. We did that with uh the youth group. I feel like they was always trying to bring us to Astro World.
SPEAKER_01There was no there's nowhere else. There was nowhere else like that close by. That's the closest, like big thing to do. And now our children will never know. Like Astro World's gone.
SPEAKER_02No, gone.
And like there's Schlitterbahn now, like in Galveston, and we've done that too. Like when they closed Astro World, we would go to Schlitterbahn.
SPEAKER_01But I'm not a water pork perk. It's fun.
SPEAKER_02It's fun. I like the water park. It's just like I don't like waiting in line all soaking wet with a big tube and you know.
SPEAKER_01I'm just I prefer amusement, like an amusement. Yeah, oh yeah, me too. Over a water park. Me too. But for sure. Can you remember how hot it was at Astro World? Does that stick out in your life? It didn't matter, but I vividly remember like being like chafed when you're trying to walk. I mean, this is a don't you don't go on the bamboo shoot girl? Do not go on the bamboo shoot and get soaking wet and then expect to go walk around all day without being the river.
SPEAKER_02You remember that? Thunder River with the big, you could fit all your friends. If you made that mistake, that was detrimental to your day. Your whole day. Because your queases was chaps. They was and use wet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Your shoes, your socks, everything. Everything. Yeah, we don't. You don't only you only make that mistake once. One time. After that, you don't do that again.
SPEAKER_02But you know what? Those were my favorites though. The bamboo shoot and the one. I love the bamboo shoot. And you be going home all stinking.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. That must back home.
SPEAKER_02Oh that. Oh, I thought you said that must. That must.
SPEAKER_01That must be must be bus back home. Talk about some old onions in there. Can you imagine? The youth group leaders. They God bless them. But they was thinking like that too. Because they was riding with us. They were younger than we are. If you think about it, like, are my I I bet you They were already? Yeah, or younger. My youth group leaders were younger when they brought us than I am right now. But that was some that was some good memories.
SPEAKER_02Oh gosh. So good. So good. And then you could like eat lunch in a park. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. And get a and then get a drink. And like, you know, I'm sure it was still expensive. It's always expensive. But they had them little people that was writing your name on rice. On a little grain of rice and then a necklace. I had one. But how hard is it to write coa on a rice? It's only three letters. They were so happy when you were probably like, yes.
SPEAKER_02When you came doodle bopping up to that thing and you said your name was Koa, they were like, Oh, perfect. I don't have to write Christina. Yes. Jessica.
SPEAKER_01But I definitely had one of it. And it was in a little cross. Little cross bottle.
SPEAKER_02I had one. I don't think it was a cross, but it was like it was a little bottle, maybe like a fairy or butterfly. I don't know. But I definitely had one. And um God only knows how much that costed at the time.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Where we got money for this. I mean, I guess my mom and daddy gave me some money. I don't remember.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Or like now that I'm thinking about it, like how we paid for this youth group trip. Because I don't remember I don't remember having no drives, no, you know, like uh fundraising.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you didn't stand in the middle of the road and beg for money? Like a panhandler? Didn't no I put a little sign.
SPEAKER_01Mom and daddy must have took care of me. The car wash. Washing cars for Ashley.
SPEAKER_02I don't know if I ever did that. But we definitely stood in the middle of the thing and we definitely had like bake sales and t-shirts.
SPEAKER_01Maybe my mama would remember because I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Dances. We did dances. We would have dances and uh like perform? No, like boy girl dances. Oh and then like whatever the money they made, I guess. Money to go for that. Or snack money. It was fun. Snack money. Yeah. I mean, go to those things. You gotta be loaded because all you're gonna do all night there is eat anyway. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01If you're not dancing, you're eating. If you ain't a dancer, you're a eater.
SPEAKER_02One of the two.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But um Do your mama would bring you to Astro World? So I had a friend, um, her name was Leanne Carrier. Uh, and I would go with them everywhere. Okay. We were like what we are. And her mama would be like, Hey Roxy, you want to go to Astro World? Or so and so so sometimes we would go like that and we just all four take calls.
SPEAKER_01That's so fun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Or like she had um like there were some other friends that would go with them. Sometimes they invite me along so that I could go with Leanne. Because at the time Leanne was a uh an only child. So they would always let me tag along everywhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, to give you a a a buddy. Putnam. Yeah, a potnut.
SPEAKER_02So we would we would go with them and we I mean, just had a blast.
SPEAKER_01We had a blast.
Now, did you ride the grease lightning?
SPEAKER_02Duh. That was my favorite. What was your favorite?
SPEAKER_01This. Yeah. Yeah. And that's all it did. Yep.
SPEAKER_02Loop and back. And loop and back. Several times I would go get in that line. I loved that one. Um, the Batman Escape was fairly new. It was always broken. And if he would hang off of it, I wrote that a couple of times.
SPEAKER_01The Batman one would always be broke, and there was another one that would always be broke. I forgot what it was called. It was some of the Tasmanian. It was it, so it was Astro World, but then it was Six Flags Astro World. And when Six Flags got it, then some of the rides were like Looney Tune themed or whatever. And it was some Tasmanian devil one that later got renamed to something else. But it was like a G, it would like give you the G forces when you'd go on it, and I blacked out on it one time. Yeah. Very quickly, but I was like, one that does this. No, no, I hate it. I don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_02No, me neither. I'm not a fan.
SPEAKER_01It was a one and it just went upside down so quick or whatever with the G, you know, it would be. You blacked out. Yeah, it made me one of the black out for a second. It was came right back.
SPEAKER_02But that did this, like in the video.
SPEAKER_01Oh, probably. If they had a camera, I would have been like horrible. It was still fun though. I wouldn't have wanted again. But that one was always broke, and it was so it was a great one. But I mean, at least two times, two summers, I went and it was broke.
SPEAKER_02Oh. The Viper. Do you remember that one?
SPEAKER_01I was scared of that one as a little like I can remember being in line, another core memory, terrified to get on it. And my pa and my daddy was like, We're not getting out of this line. We're not, you know, I'm sorry, we're not getting out of this line. You're gonna ride it. And when after I wrote it, I was fine and I wanted to go back. It only had one loop. Just one. Yeah. But it was an oldie but goody. Yeah. And it was the tunnel part that scared me. Because you go in the tunnel and it was black for a second. But yeah, the Viper, the accelerate. The accelerate. Accelerate. And that was like old. Like it I don't know how old it was. It was one of the older ones, though. But it was like really nothing. It was no loops, I don't think, or anything, but it was fun. Like you kind of felt like you were flying.
SPEAKER_02I remember that so well. That was one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_01Like your feet would hang. Your feet would hang. Yeah. I remember that section of the park. It was like the bamboo shoot, and then you go over to the accelerate. Oh, I'm so glad you said that.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And then there was one, the big wooden one. Yeah, Texas Cyclone. Texas Cyclone. I was thinking Texas Tornado, but that's Tracy Lawrence. Yeah. But um, yeah, Texas Cyclone. That was one of the only wooden ones left. And and I was ready to risk my life and everything on it. Every time. Every time. Didn't care. No. It would beat the hell out of you. Like it was so rough. It was. You could like get bruises on you. It was, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It was a rough one.
SPEAKER_02It's fun though.
SPEAKER_01What other one? Um. The dungeon drop. The big Oh, I love that. I love that.
SPEAKER_02That was like the first one when you get in the pork, the dungeon drop. Okay, but there was another one that was inside like this big pyramid looking thing.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And it was in the dark.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Tice. The mine bender. The mind bender. Yes. Okay. Yeah. It was in the mine bender. Okay. So yeah. And you got disoriented kind of because it was dark. And then it would like you'd have a f a flash of light in one part. But it was, it was not a looper, I don't think. It was just a, you know, in there, but it was weird because it was dark.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't think there was any loops. They said like your friends would be like, there's three of them in there, but you don't know. Trying to scare you. Yeah, you can't see it.
SPEAKER_01So I forgot about that one. Excalibur.
unknownExcalibur.
SPEAKER_01Excalibur. Well, tell me about that one. It was just a no. I'm trying to think. I wrote them all. I feel like it was uh a faster version, but there was no, it was like a safe one to me. Because I remember liking it when I was little, before they had some of the bigger rides. When Six Flags took over, they had gotten some bigger rides. The dungeon drop came in and all that. Um, so this was an older one, but I remember feeling like, oh, this is fun, but it wasn't a scary one. Okay. It was red. I remember that. Accelerate was blue. They had the thing that you uh like you strap in and they re- and you pull the cord and you swing.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I did that. Me and my cousin Hannah did that. Like they strap you in and they pull you up like this, and then you'd be flying and it's like $400.
SPEAKER_01It was a lot. I would save my money. I'd save my allowance. If I knew we were going to Astro World, I'd start doing chores around the house and save my money to ride that.
SPEAKER_02And that's where the entrepreneur coas started. That's where it all started. I wonder what that slingshot thing's called. But um, sky, sky, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01The sky something scraper.
SPEAKER_02I don't know.
SPEAKER_01They had a skyscraper or a sky screamer thing, and it was like it would just go zoom. That was it. Kind of like the Tower of Terror in Disney, but on a much smaller version.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And you just go up and it would free fall. Oh. But that and then that the the big dungeon drop, I think, took the place of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's the dungeon drop is what I remember. Because I wrote that all the time. And people's shoes would fly off all the time. Like in midair. There goes her shoe.
SPEAKER_01Hats. Scary.
SPEAKER_02What you was doing.
SPEAKER_01I liked that one too because you gotta wait in line for it inside and the air conditioner was blowing. That was a nice wait. That was cool. I didn't mind those. Oh, I remember the serial thriller. Girl.
SPEAKER_02That one was so good. I loved the cereal thriller. Let's go ride the cereal thriller. Like that was like That was it, yeah. That was that was the one that was.
SPEAKER_01I couldn't wait to ride that one as soon as we got there.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yes. That one and that dropping one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, me too. Dungeon Drop.
SPEAKER_02That was it. That was it. The two first ones. Then we could play a little while on the rest. Get to the back, do Grease Lightning.
SPEAKER_01All the way to the back of the park. Now, when they had concerts out there, they had that's where the concerts were on this big lawn, way to the back. So you had to go back by the uh the Grease Lightning. So I was like, that's the last ride we can do before the concert starts.
SPEAKER_02See, we didn't know the concerts are nothing like that. It was like DC talk, like Christian concerts. Oh sweet. Yeah. Oh, and then y'all got to spend a night.
SPEAKER_01We had to ride back on that one bus. There were plenty there was more musty, busty bus musty bus rides than there was. Pennanites. I can promise you. That was only one time we got to Pennanite. But I mean, if I went with my mom and daddy, we spent the night.
SPEAKER_02That would love it was a whole trip, you know. I'd love to be able to take the big girls do that. Me too. Yes. That would be so much fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I agree. We'll have to just drive further. Like they still have good things.
SPEAKER_02We'll have to go to Dollywood.
SPEAKER_01Go further. Yours have been, huh?
SPEAKER_02The two big girls. Yeah. Um, and I made them ride roller coasters because I'm like, you have to you have to experience my childhood. And I was like, you have to do this. And Jerry just freaked out on one of them.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_02But I didn't know it was like a dark one, you know. So we did that. And she was like, I don't like him. But but then she watches, like, there's uh a YouTube channel that does all kinds of amusement parks and like um like but they're stories?
SPEAKER_01Stories like fails, like scary things.
SPEAKER_02No, not scary things. This is more like uh because I don't want to know none of that. This is more like old war old parks. Um what it used to be. They pull out old footage and like they show the parks and like the creepy rides and like the but like also what the rides look like just to kind of flip nostalgia. I forgot what it's called, but anyway, we we love watching that because it's just they've changed so much over the years, especially safety. Oh yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, is it's crazy, but okay, do you but okay, there was a time when it changed more to Looney Tunes, but do you remember that little ball headed man that was on all the Astro World commercial?
SPEAKER_01It was the six flags. Six flags had that ball man, and he would dance and yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And the makeup was horrible on it, man. Oh, terrible, they could really get down though.
unknownOh yeah.
SPEAKER_01He was probably young with an old mask on, yeah, for sure. You know, for sure. Yeah, but yeah, good time. Good. Such good memories.
Please share with us in the comments if you have any memories at Astro World.
SPEAKER_02This will be very it'll be a great read. I can't I I hope y'all do. I I think that this will bring back many good memories for you. And I didn't remember that I knew that many uh ride names?
SPEAKER_01I knew they were they were coming back to me. Listen, when when me and when I would talk about with my daddy, this is what we talk about. Let's daddy, let's talk about Astro World. I love and we would I would talk about with my daddy. And we talk all the day. Okay, baby, what we're gonna ride when we go. I'm like, we're gonna ride that whatever this that was our talk about. And then later on, when we started going to like we would do beach trips, and so it was like, let's talk about golf shores, let's talk about, you know. So oh, we gotta get to we gotta get to and maybe maybe you're not you don't know Astro World, but there was another place in your childhood that y'all would go to all the time. Tell us what it was, tell us what you did there and what made it special for you, some some memories for you.
SPEAKER_02We don't we've never neither one of us have ever been to Disney, so we can't help you with that. No, but anything like that, y'all let us know. What what do y'all like to do? Do y'all know of any other amusement parks that are around there, around now that you know maybe we should check out one day and put it on the bucket list. Right. So anyway, thank y'all so much for hanging out
with us. We hope you enjoyed that talk on Astro World. And thank you, How the Cajun Lady Accent, for being so awesome and sponsoring us again this month. How the Cajun LadyAccent.com is her website. Go and subscribe. Make sure you get all the latest from Hal uh there. And also check her out on Facebook, Snapchat, learn how to cook.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Y'all, it is. If you're not watching her, uh, even for the fact of learning how to make stuff, because a lot of times we'll get asked, like, I posted a video of a roast and or a sandwich that I had made with roast, and they said, roast recipe, please. And I'm like, I don't have a recipe. I just I know what to do. Yeah. She takes the time to kind of tell you how to do it, you know, and that and even like she's working on a cookbook, she's been working on a cookbook for years, and it's hard to put pen and paper to a Cajun recipe because everybody made it different. I'm going off on a tangent, but you know what I'm saying? Like it's true.
SPEAKER_02It's hard to do that because we just we just sprinkle until the ancestors say that's enough, you know. And if you're not from here, then you might not know that scale. Yeah, and so how will help you to the best of her ability. She has some great cooking videos, and she's got the seasoning to go with it. Yeah, so y'all make sure y'all check her out. And thank you, Hal, for being a wonderful sponsor of Coffee Talk with a Cajun Mamas. Our friend. Yes.
SPEAKER_01We'll see y'all next time.
SPEAKER_02Bye.
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