Paula entering the Comet - 1959.  Photo contributed by Paula DavisPaula exits the Comet - 1959.  Photo contributed by Paula DavisVideo capture by Jay DucharmeVideo capture by Jay DucharmeVideo capture by Jay DucharmeVideo capture by Jay DucharmeVideo capture by Jay DucharmeVideo capture by Jay Ducharme
The Flyer Comet Roller Coaster
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Our Memories of the 'Flyer Comet' Roller-Coaster
This was my first roller coaster!  I'll never forget riding with my grandfather on the Comet at age 8 in 1974.  While I was terrified the first time, after many subsequent rides I began a love affair with rollercoasters that lasts to this day.
Michael Ferrera ~ July 6, 2010
The Flyer Comet Roller-Coaster was constructed in 1940 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.  It replaced the roller coaster which was destroyed by the tornado of 1938.  Philadelphia Toboggan Company is the oldest existing roller coaster manufacturing company in the world, manufacturing a variety of amusement rides, including carousels, wooden roller coasters, and their trains. 
This is where my life long love of rollercoasters all started!!! I would ride this ride (sometimes alone because my sister was too scared) over and over! Since Ive gone on so many coasters from all over, including Disney and Cedar Point..but this one I will always remember fondly as it was THE FIRST...loved it!
Amy ~ July 17, 2010
This was one of the 1st coasters I have been on! I will remember it forever! The coaster will be missed.
Paul J. Sheehan~ July 17, 2010
My father brought me on the roller coaster I must have been about 10, I have a fear of height and I'm not great with high speed so you can imagine how much I wanted to go on this.  We went, it was a thrill that is for sure and I was ready to get off but my father said lets go again, OMG!  That was my first and last roller coaster but I do remember it fondly especially being with my father.
Chris Trainque ~ December 11, 2010
I remember when it caught fire. We could see it from our house at the top of the hill. I was around 8 years old.  I remember being more terrified of it than any other, bigger coasters. It shook so much!!
Ruth ~ December 27, 2010
My two sons were featured in a Worcester Magazine article on the front seat of the Flyer Comet...they were ages 2 and 4 at the time....If anyone has seen this article please post as I never saw it it was back in 1993.. thanks
L. Angelos ~ June 18, 2011
"You must be this tall to ride"
How much trauma has that sign and it's variations caused to vertically challenged 8 year-olds? I remember standing there forlornly looking at that red line. Maybe if I stood on my tip toes the Fascist ride attendant wouldn't notice? How dare they exclude me based on something so seemingly arbitrary as my height? For years my emotions were on their own roller coaster, vacillating between outrage at the unfairness of it and sadness that I wasn't as tall as certain other friends of mine. And, in all honesty, every time I watched the coaster shaking like jello on a washing machine as it screamed through the first u-turn, I was secretly slightly relieved that I wasn't tall enough to ride. But that was besides the point because I wanted to ride the coaster!

For what seemed like years, but was probably only 2 summers, I stood there watching the line of people on the up ramp and their looks of happy anticipation and the people on the down ramp, their faces flushed with an afterglow of excitement. I hated that red line. I was sick of riding the Flivver cars. You couldn't even steer them! The steering wheel just turned around and around - boring. I wanted the coaster. I didn't care that it shook like a house of cards in a wind tunnel. That sign was standing between me and happiness!

I honestly wish I remember exactly how old I was when I was first able to stand besides that dreaded sign and realize I might be tall enough. I was probably 11 or 12 but it's not as important as the fact that I was in. Yippee! It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. I was part of the club. I wasn't "little" anymore. I could ride the coaster! The attendant wasn't a fascist anymore. He was just some teenager more interested in the girls than anything else.

A year or two later I remember going to Whalom with my little league team and me and a good friend of mine did nothing but ride the Flyer Comet all day. We logged 47 rides in one day. It was a personal triumph shooting past that sign over and over again. It wasn't even on my radar as I raced down the ramp and back around onto the up ramp for another ride. The sign and all it stood for weren't important anymore.

Since then I've been on many other coasters but none of them have the memories associated with them as that white rickety coaster at Whalom Park. Every time I drive by and see condos where that coaster was I sadly shake my head. I can close my eyes and still visualize every twist and turn of the Flyer Comet. I can't say that of any other coaster.
Bob D. of Fitchburg, MA ~ July 17, 2011
When I worked the park in 1973-1974, the park had closed and a bunch of us went over to get a couple of rides from the old gentleman
( I cannot think of his name ) who worked the coaster. He let about ten of us on and we went around that track for about an hour!!!!!!! Talk about laughing our A** off !!!!!! I can still hear his voice...." re-rides, three tickets, re-rides, three tickets!" Course that night he jsut kept saying, "bye bye!" and he would pull the lever again and again........
John Spadafore ~ August 23, 2011
I've been away from Massachusettes for many years that I never knew the park closed. The rollercoaster was the first and ONLY coaster I've ever been on. I remember every memory I ever have there. My favorite memory (and I know this seems strange), is that sign plastered on the underpass of that bridge that screamed out WHALOM PARK STRAIGHT AHEAD 3 MILES. When I seen that sign I knew we were close to having fun that day. I'll never forget those childhood memories. They say all good things must come to an end---
and they are right :(   Gone but never forgotten.   Thank you for the wonderful memories Whalom!
Tracy Strom formerly from Gardner ~ July 10, 2012