Summers Of The Past, Part 2

Running to the Midway, we headed to our traditional first stop, The Penny Arcade.  The arcade was a building with an old wooden floor, with overhead brightly colored, flashing light bulbs. We had to use"kid power" to operate the various machines ourselves.  Today all the machines are electronic. When we had our fill of games we decided to go to the fun house.

The fun house was anything but fun.  You were always in the dark throughout the walk.  It could be creepy. Stairs that rocked and moved under your feet.  Mirrors where you could appear to be fat or skinny.  Most frightening were three doors that you had to choose from to find your way out of the house.  Of course, my sister and I chose the wrong door and a scarey figure jumped out at us. It was more fun to leave the fun house than to be in it.

It was time for the afternoon  high-wire act.  We stood around the lagoon and watched the act. The boats with the rowers in the lagoon came to a stop.  All our heads were looking up at the graceful trapee artists

The twin roller coasters, called "The Racer" were next on the agenda.  One car was blue and the other green.  You never knew which car would win.  After the excitement we calmed down a little and went our separate ways the rest of the afternoon.  I headed to the Swings.  You could swing in an inidividual seat, accompanied by the music of the nearby merry-go-round. There was nothing like whizzing by, feeling carefree.  It was a pleasant world of make believe.

Evening came too quickly.  Walking past Danceland, we saw the couples, dressed up, waiting in line with their tickets to dance to the dance band, already assembled and playing.

I headed for the silver planes for a ride right next to the evening act that was about to start. It was a repeat of the same act that performed in the afternoon, but somehow seemed more exciting when performed in the darkness of night with the lights surrounding the lagoon.

Another hour to go until the park closed for the day.  Soon it dwindled down to the last half hour before closing.  We helped pack up and made our traditional stop at the concession stand that sold french fries with malted vinegar (no catsup for us).

Fifteen minutes left to go  before our return home  when our street car stopped at the entrance to the park.   The street car pulled up in front of the benches. We stepped on the street car and  found a seat.  While the street car made the turn to leave the park, we waved at the bright lights of the Midway, and breathing a relaxed sigh, closed our eyes and went to sleep for the return trip home

Summers Of The Past, Part 1

I started to think about what summers of the past were like.  My first recall was the grade school picnic at the Amusement Park. Travel was so much different in those days, in the 1950's.   There was very little traffic.  Not everyone owned an automobile. We either walked or rode the street cars to our destinations. To walk a mile a day from school or church wasn't a big deal.


Our grade school picnic was always near the end of June, after school was out. We could hardly sleep the night before because we were restless with excitement and anticipation of the next day.

At around 10:00 a.m everyone would be at the street car stop infront of the school to get ready to load up for the hours ride to the amusement park.  Our mothers and grandmothers each packed a large picnic basket to carry on the streetcar. Most people could not afford to eat out.  We had some money we saved for amusement park snacks.

We loaded onto the special streetcar that was an hours ride away from the amusement park.  What was special about this streetcar was the tracks were switched only once a year for the school picnic.
Off we went, windows open and the breeze blowing in our faces.  Someone would start singing a song and everyone joined in.  (It seems there was a lot of singing in those days)

"What are you going to ride first"?  "I 'm going on the Racer Roller Coaster" - "Haunted House", someone yelled. "Let's ride the horses"!

The clickity-clack of the trolley lulled  us into a hypnotic trance for a few miles.  You could smell the smoke of the steel mills and see the train tracks.  Ahead of us were lots of green trees; the entrance to the park.

The trolley pulled to a stop.  The doors opened and out we went.  It was a short distance to the cafeteria.  We stopped with grandmother and her heavy picnic basket to rest on a park bench.  Then,
we helped carry the basket up the cafeteria steps.  After saying goodbye to our folks, we headed down the steps, out the door, towards the Midway.