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| Thelma Gratsch (front) rides the Diamondback |
The soon to be 89-year-old Mount Lookout woman refuses to be sidelined by age. She's too busy laughing her way through life to call it a day.
"You adjust with the times," Gratsch said. "I've had fun all my life because that is the way that I was raised." Fun, for Gratsch means, getting wet, going fast, going upside down and getting whipped around like a cheerleader's pom-pom.
The 4-foot, 11-inch Gratsch refuses to stay off roller coasters. Gratsch was born in the Roaring 20s, a boom time for coasters. She became a regular patron of Coney Island at an early age. At the time, a nickel bought you trip on the Island Queen from the Public Landing to Coney Island.
Coney had three coasters then and Gratsch grew up riding them. When Kings Island opened in 1972, Gratsch was a 50-year-old married mother of nine.
Don Helbig, now the park's spokesman, remembers Gratsch from his teen years, when he was a park season pass holder. "She proves the theory that age is mind over matter; if you don't mind it, it doesn't matter," Helbig said. "It's always good to see her at the park."
In a good season, Gratsch will visit the park 60 times. Her favorite ride, at least until time and engineering throws another dazzler her way, is the Diamondback. "It's like you are riding a convertible down the highway - at 80 miles per hour -- and it's like you are floating through the air and you are just going with it," Gratsch said.
As one of the first to ride the Diamondback when it opened in 2009, Gratsch decided to take her complimentary T-shirt with her to Mass at Christ the King the following Sunday. Before Mass was over, when announcements were made, a few words of prayer where sent Gratsch's way: "We thank Jesus that Thelma Gratsch survived the Diamondback."
Amen to that.
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