June 2010
Looking Back... June 2010
25 June 2010 - 5:01pm
Remembering Will
Karen has worked here since she was a teen.
She was one of Will's favorites: cheerful, hard-working, quick with a witty comeback. She's now a married mom of two, and our administrative assistant.
With Will's passing, Karen was asked to piece together photos and video clips to help tell Will's story.
Here's a clip with photos of Will in the park, video of him playing bass guitar with the Beachcombers, plus a bit of a sweet interview Will's middle child, Leah, conducted with Will a few years ago, asking questions you'd posted here on the HoliBlog.
That bit about Karen being one of Will's favorites? Come to think of it, our boss and dear friend had a way about him that made us all feel like we were special to him.
...as he was to all of us.
24 June 2010 - 6:38pm
So...was Will proud of Wildebeest?
You decide.
Thanks to Chris for permission to use this photo, which was taken June 5.
19 June 2010 - 8:08pm
The laughter goes on
I'm sifting through some old emails to save the ones from Will that made me laugh.
It's almost every last one of them.
His sense of humor kept our mood buoyant and his easy, infectious (okay, goofy!) laugh was downright inspirational.
Something he said pretty regularly: "If we can't have fun, who can? We're a theme park, for goodness sake!"
Who could be grumpy around that sort of logic?
I'd email or call Will a dozen times a day just to share silliness. Sometimes it was a delicious pun, other times a bit of irony I knew he'd appreciate. We never made fun of others, we just delighted in the simple typos of life.
All week, I've instinctively grabbed my phone to call Will. One time was to chuckle about a sweet email sent to us that said we were all such good people, indeed we were all angles. I can just hear Will wanting to know if he could be an obtuse angle ... of course, I would want to be an acute angle.
Here's another example: A guest wrote in asking about something she'd heard in the park and found hard to believe -- that children actually "shrink" during the day as they ride rides.
Sounded pretty far-fetched, but I sent it to Will just in case it was something I'd missed in physics class way-back-when.
His reply: I think it has something to do with foreshortening of length due to travel at relativistic (approaching light speed) speeds. The good news is that there’s also a time dilation effect—kids who spend a day here traveling at near light speed actually age less than if they were sitting at home stationary on their couch. In all seriousness, I can’t imagine where this came from!
The good folks at Amusement Today sent us this photo of Will from a few years back. It's one of the many times he was awarded a Golden Ticket for the Cleanest Park in the World.
It's been a tough week for us all. Someone we loved dearly was taken from us much too soon. But as we've clung together in our grief, smiles and laughter have broken through as we remember this wonderful man and all he gave us, never expecting anything in return.
Rest in peace, Will Koch.
7 June 2010 - 8:27pm
Holidog dances like it's 1946
This video is pretty dark, but I've watched it three times and now my face is sore from smiling so much, so I'm going to post it.
Dance, doggie, dance!
Saturday night, the Beachcombers entertained about 650 coaster enthusiasts from all over the country as we waited for the park to close and clear, so the enthusiasts could ride till midnight.
As you can see, Holidog was boogieing like a young pup.
5 June 2010 - 2:08pm
What does it say...
...when it takes the CEO of the company to replace you?
The Beachcombers' bass player, John, needed the afternoon off to go graduate from high school, so Will Koch was tapped to fill in...
The Beachcombers perform every afternoon except Wednesday at Splashin' Safari.
