Zweitklassigenthemenparksnostalgie, Nein

More rain ahead for northeast Illinois. We don't need any more for now, but the human residents of a particular area don't control these things. Maybe that's just as well, since if people could control the rain, they would send flooding rains to visit their enemies, who might return the favor. The story of mankind would then be even muddier than it is.

Speaking of floods, Tom Wood wrote in the Nashville Scene today: "I believe it may have been Jung who observed that survivors of a major flood often develop Zweitklassigenthemenparksnostalgie, the communal desire to reconstruct the second-rate theme parks they frequented as children. Sure enough, that's just what's happening. Since last week, more than 27,000 Facebook members have joined a group called "Let's build Opryland where Opry Mills once stood!"

Kudos to Tom for his amusingly bogus German. (I assume it's bogus, but with German you're never quite sure.) As for the Facebook Group, it should be noted that Opry Mills is still standing. Remediation of the massive flood damage will take quite a while, but the property will return to being a mall eventually.

The back story is that Opryland USA, a theme park with a country music theme, operated near the Cumberland River from 1972 to 1997. Then it closed. Opry Mills, a regional mall, was developed at the site and opened in 2000.

I didn't go to the theme park as a child. I went once as a young man, with some other friends, in the summer of 1985. We were entertaining an out-of-town visitor, a Frenchwoman. I remember the weather was very hot. The park was very crowded. The Frenchwoman was not impressed, but then again if the Taj Mahal happened to be in North America, that wouldn't have impressed her either.

We must of ridden some rides, but I can't remember what. We ducked into music venues a few times, mainly to escape the heat. I think I saw animatronic figures at one of those shows, but that might have been Disneyland in some other year. Or -world. It's all a jumble. I feel very little nostalgia for Opryland USA. None, in fact.