3 days ago
The old dude on the rad ride
Due to such things as motion sickness, dizziness, fear of heights, lack of energy, fear of fainting, weak stomach, bad knees, bad back, just ate lunch and various other age-induced ailments/excuses, extreme roller coaster riding trends toward people who say 'like' and 'bro' and 'dude' a lot.
Then there's Haroutioun Arslanian. Just this summer, he's ridden the Cannibal roller coaster — Lagoon Amusement Park's marquee thrill ride with its 140-foot drop, speeds up to 70 mph, three inverted loops and 4.2 G-forces comparable to a NASCAR driver in a banked turn — well over 100 times.
He's 89.
Haroutioun (it's pronounced Hah-roo-chewn) is the guy who gets off Cannibal and races the 14-year olds back to the start to go again. One day he did that 14 times, his personal record.
Ask him why he does it — like I did recently at his son-in-law Dave Nash's auto dealership in North Salt Lake — and first he gives you a look that says 'isn't it obvious?' before answering: 'Because it's fun.'
Then he adds, 'It makes you feel young.'
Haroutioun didn't grow up riding roller coasters. An Armenian by ethnicity, he was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. He remembers the Nazis during World War II dropping bombs on a French colony not far from the Catholic school he attended and the apartment building where his family lived on the sixth floor.
He was a soccer player, a cyclist, a ballroom dancer and played the harmonica — and a trained machinist. In 1967 he, his wife, Manoushag, and their two sons emigrated to America, following Manoushag's parents who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Utah.
Haroutioun's life, not unlike a roller coaster, has been one of perpetual motion. He worked as a machinist until he was 61 and Manoushag, who everyone called Violet, was diagnosed with MLS. He retired and cared for her until her death, then remarried and served an 18-month Latter-Day Saint senior mission in the Philippines. Since his second wife passed he has continued to work two days a week at his son-in-law's car dealership and one day a week as a worker at the Jordan River Latter-day Saint temple (something he's done for 25 years).
He also goes to the gym every day, except Sunday, without fail (he still curls 30-pound dumbbells), and watches Hallmark movies on television in the evenings (he calls them 'Cinderella movies.') No one has ever called this man lackadaisical.
It was Haroutioun's daughter Liza, who was born in America, who turned her dad into a Cannibal legend, albeit inadvertently.
Her initial objective was to get him to buy a season pass to Lagoon because everyone in the family was buying one this year, including several grandkids who had just moved back.
At first he declined.
'I've been to Lagoon, it's not that big of a deal,' he told her.
This assessment was based on family trips years ago.
'We used to go a lot, but my dad was always married,' explains Lisa. 'First there was my mom, and she didn't like to ride any of those rides. And then my mom passed away and he married again, and she didn't like to ride any of those rides either. So if he came to Lagoon with us, he would just hang out with them and do like the train or whatever.'
No one, least of all Haroutioun, realized the latent roller coaster champion hidden within.
It was the senior rate that swung the deal.
'We were looking at the season pass prices and realized there's a senior discount,' says Liza, 'It's like $57 for a season pass.'
'Seriously, $57?' said Haroutioun, 'I'm in.'
When her dad mentioned he'd like to try the roller coasters, Liza responded, 'I don't know, Dad. I don't know if you're going to like it.'
She was right. He didn't like it. He loved it.
As the summer months have passed, the old dude on the rad ride has become something of a local sensation. More often than not, teenagers will give him fist bumps as he makes his loops.
Occasionally, he'll get asked what keeps him so energetic, healthy and young. What's his secret?
'First, be happy,' he says. 'Don't worry about money. Money comes and goes. Just be happy and stay healthy and eat the right thing and don't you ever smoke or drink. If somebody says one drink, one cigarette is OK, no, it's not OK. One cigarette, one nail for your coffin.'
His son-in-law Dave — it was Dave who sent the Deseret News an email about Haroutioun titled 'My amazing father in law' — might add one more quality to the formula.
'He doesn't stand still. He's definitely not afraid to try new things,' he wrote. 'The roller coaster is just one of those new things.'
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