Marty Moltz, 45, is a state appellate prosecutor who has argued more cases in the reviewing courts of Illinois than any other lawyer in history. A former chairman of the Chicago Bar Association Criminal Law Committee, Moltz dreams of becoming a circuit court judge. Before she died, Moltz says, his mother used to tell him why he hadn’t reached his goal.
Moltz is far from alone and peculiar. People of all ages and walks of life from around the world are calling this the new golden age of the roller coaster. (The first golden age was in the 1920s, although coaster-type rides have been around for centuries.) Roller coasters are being built again, and almost 3,000 fans have formalized their obsessive love for them by declaring membership in American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE). The national organization, which charges $30 a year to members, began when some of the charter members met in connection with the 1977 feature film Rollercoaster.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“I dozed a little,” says Ambrosini, 41, “but a little kick about the second or third hill kept waking me up.”
Liucija can tell you about the steel roller coasters of Tokyo and the Mount Fuji area in Japan, where she traveled on a dignitary’s junket in her role as past president of ACE.
It was a full six months into their 20-year marriage before the Ambrosinis discovered they both loved roller coasters. They had met as drama students at UIC, and the subject just never came up. They were driving east on a vacation, and it was a misty 3 AM. They were curving around on a winding road when suddenly a roller coaster peeked out at them through the fog.
