Download File - The Six Flags Museum

Family has fond memories of Six Flags since it opened
Abilene Reporter-News (TX) - Monday, April 18, 2011
•• Luttrells' trips were a summer event
Charles G. Anderson Sr.
Special to Reporter-News
The Log Ride and the "pink things" still stand out as favorites for the Bill and Hazanne
Luttrell family, who have been going to Six Flags Over Texas since it opened 50 years
ago.
Their children, Lynn, Mike, Suzanne, Keith, and Shannon are all in their 50s now. But 11
grandchildren are still enjoying the fun. And before too many more years pass, a couple
of Bill and Hazanne Luttrell's grandchildren will share in the fun. Bill, 78, and Hazanne,
75, have been on every ride and have seen all the nooks and crannies of Six Flags as their
children were growing up. Bill and Hazanne remember riding through the water in a
stagecoach or clinging to their children on the canoes and roller coasters. Six Flags is
celebrating 50 years since it first opened on Aug. 1, 1961, and the Luttrell family has
been a part of it almost from the very beginning.
"Our five children were all born over a 12-year period," Hazanne said. "They loved to go
to Six Flags and ride everything there."
"I used to ride the roller coaster with them," Bill Luttrell said. "The kids liked all the
scary rides."
He said they would stand in the long lines and wait until they could go on the stagecoach
or some of the other scary events with water splashing everywhere.
"It was good wholesome entertainment for families," Bill said. "I still remember buying
and eating the 'pink thing,'" which he said was something like ice cream. Bill said the
kids loved the Western shoot out.
"We loved the musical shows too," Hazanne said. "The college kids that worked at Six
Flags were so talented."
She said the kids seemed to go out of their way to be kind and friendly.
"Six Flags were a regular summer event for many years," Bill said. He said the whole
family could have a full day of entertainment for less than $100.
"We took picnic lunches," Hazanne said. "We would leave the park and go out to the car
or somewhere to eat."

Hazanne said the children still talk about their memories of Six Flags.
"I have enjoyed going to Six Flags throughout the years and still enjoy it today," said
Lynn Luttrell, 54, now a teacher at Abilene Christian University. He remembered a
special trip in the mid-1960s.
"I was about 7 or 8 years of age," Lynn said.
Lynn said the Log Ride was new and he really liked it as it splashed water all over
everyone.
"I also liked the roller coaster ride that had us spending most of the time in the coaster
riding on the water rather than rolling on a track," Lynn said. Lynn said his parents
planned ways of taking advantage of specials and discounts for tickets.
"We did not have a lot money, so my parents were creative and resourceful," Lynn said.
"My wife, Sherri, and I have been back to Six Flags through the years with our own two
children."
He said he hopes the Log Ride will still be there when the family takes their
grandchildren in a few years.
Bill and Hazanne's second son, Mike Luttrell, 51, now a coach at Irving High School,
remembers his grandparents taking him and his brother to Six Flags.
"My grandparents, dad's parents, took my brother and me when we were very young
around 1964. I was 5 and my brother was 8," he said. "The Log Ride was the big
attraction at the time we had never seen anything like it."
Mike recalled seeing bands like Chicago, Beach Boys, and Amy Grant. He said that by
the time he got into junior high or high school, the Cave Ride was a classic and he could
ride it with a girlfriend.
"The food was great from the funnel cakes to the corn dogs," Mike said. "The Batman
show also was great and our own kids were really into Batman."
Suzanne Luttrell Barrow, 47, daughter of Bill and Hazanne Luttrell, now living in Pebble
Beach, Calif., said she can remember the excitements of going to Six Flags for the first
time.
"I remember the first time I tasted the 'pink things,'" she said. "I also remember getting to
invite my best friend, Renea, who had never been to Six Flags. Suzanne said her parents
had a station wagon and took the whole family.
Six Flags over Texas not only was an exciting adventure for the young and old, it taught
history of Texas under the flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas,

Confederate States, and the United States since 1519. Each area had themes built around
each of the six flags that had graced the state.
There were various ways to get tickets to Six Flags. Sherri Dickson Luttrell, 54, married
to Lynn Luttrell, said. She grew up in Abilene and remembers her parents, Curt and
Bobbie Dickson, saving S&H Green Stamps for tickets. "For each full book of stamps
you could get a Six Flags ticket and a T-shirt," she said. "So we did that several summers
in a row and went to Six Flags."
"I still enjoy the nostalgic thrill of riding the Log Ride because it reminds me of my first
time ever at Six Flags," she said. "I hope they never get rid of it."