Now Entering Wonderland
This past weekend I went to Canada’s Wonderland for the first time in about eleven years. The place has changed in that time, but more outside its boundaries than inside. Sure, they’ve built a few more rides over last decade — the Italian Job is a real thrill — but the most noticeable difference was at the gates.
Getting inside the park grounds is now like going through U.S. Customs. Each entry lane takes you through a metal detector and into the hands of uniformed personnel dressed alarmingly like U.S. Homeland Security. I watched in dismay as a pair of highschool kids ahead of me were searched thoroughly, each forced to empty pockets and dump out knapsacks. A pocket knife was confiscated from one of them. No one was asked to remove their shoes or submit to a body search, but I was waiting for it.
It was a strange experience, one that reminded me of traveling to and from Colorado a couple of years ago. When I finally cleared Canada’s Wonderland Customs, I half-expected to see a sign inside the gate annoucing “You are now entering the United States.” Not that I was worried, of course. I had my “passport to summer fun.”
Pasiphilo
June 27, 2006