I'm a roller coaster fan. As a kid I got to ride on the old one at the Pike in Long Beach. It went over the ocean, swayed, & leaned the wrong way around the curves. It the was the scariest ride of my life. Ghost Rider at Knotts & Psyclone at Magic Mountain have been the closest to feeling similar. I think Psyclone is also gone now.
No, I never made it to POP. I was a kid, & my folks seemed to hang out further south. The Pike was a regular for us. I remember the big wood roller coaster, a house of mirrors, Laugh in the Dark, The Rotor, a smaller steel roller coaster called The Wild Mouse, & what seemed like a very high double ferris wheel. I was probably 9 when they tore down the big coaster & my folks quit going.
Did you ever hear the story of the stuffed mummy outside the funhouse? I was told that when they removed it, they found out it was an actual human mummy!