Conquering my fears

This past weekend. I went to the start of the season at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The weather was fabulous and the beach and boardwalk were packed.

One of the main attractions: Laffing Sal. Sal is an old coin-operated attraction from the old playland at the Beach at Ocean Beach. The Boardwalk recently bought Sal at auction and refurbished it.

Now I have no recollection of this, but my dad told me that Sal used to scare the shit out of me when i was a kid. Playland was gone, but the arcade still stood in the early 70's and apparently, I was petrified of Sal.

Who knows why... the mechanical cackling, the jovial movement of her rusty joints. She just scared the crap outta me.