old amusement park closed :(

[gregm]

I went to Canobie Lake Park in Salem, NH this past weekend, was very crowded, very clean, nice to still see a family amusement park still in business and for over one hundred years. But alas, as I mentioned in a previous thread a while back the park where my grandparents danced weekly and where my mom met my dad is closed forever and there will soon be NOTHING left to even memorialize it. So sad. Here is a link to where I, my family and friends went many, many times as a kid and early adult and had many fun memories.

http://www.angelfire.com/nh/whalom/

 

[frigilux]

Ah, yes; time takes its toll on the things we love. As I progress into middle age, I find more and more places I visited as a child/teenager/young adult are either gone or unrecognizable. Feelin' your pain, gregm! It looks like it was a fun place to visit.

 

[gregm]

thanks

thanks frigilux, so is this progress ? boy not to dwell, hahahaha, but it really bums me out to see some things to me that brought such joy, fun and pleasure to so many people for so many years can just disappear from the face of the planet. I don't get it. But if you read some of the articles, many people tried to save this park. There was just a "feeling" when you went there that can't be replaced anywhere else. Oh well. Enjoy what you can while you can.

 

[veg-o-matic]

Greg, we have to get together and talk some day. I too spent many happy summer days at Whalom Park (after going for a swim in Whalom Lake, of course.)

It's possible that our paths might have crossed at some point. Wouldn't that be weird?

veg

 

[Kenmore62]

ROCKEY POINT PARK

HI
We lost ROCKEY POINT PARK here in Rhode Island. I still miss it,summer wasn,t summer without at least on trip there.
And the shore dinner hall was good also there.Clam fritters and chowder, then spend the afternoon in the park.

View attachment 8-21-2006-21-32-8--KENMORE62.jpg

 

[kenmore58]

Greg, I agree with you. It's a shame all of our childhood memories are going by the wayside. Since I drive right by Whalom Park every weekend on my way to Eric's, I've seen it go from a fully operational amusement park to just the skating rink being open for an indoor flea market to watching a closed park slowly deteriorate.

In Rhode Island we had a very similar park known as Rocky Point. Not only did it have an excellent amusement park, but a shore dinner hall that offered the best chowder and clam cakes in the world.

Fortunately, when I met Eric, although the park was closing, they kept the shore dinner hall open and when he and I were living together in Rhode Island, we were able to go there for a dinner of chowder and clam cakes down by the water.

I guess we have to remember to enjoy what we have while we have it. You never know when it will be gone.

Ron

 

[kevinpreston8]

This is all so sadly true

A good part of my childhood years was spent in Denver, Colorado. Our big amusement park there was Elitch Gardens. This was about 20 minutes from downtown. It was over 100 years old, and it started with a playhouse, huge gorgeous gardens, etc. When we used to go there, it had a world famous roller coaster-Mr. Twister-and all the old fashioned great amusement park features. A real midway. A kiddy land that I would spend all day in. That old style haunted house (that was really nothing more than a huge open room but you could not tell when you were in there). I remember when I was old enough to "drive" the bumper cars myself. How exciting it was. I remember walking down the midway, with a big lemondade or coke, the air filled with the smell of popcorn and the whooshing sound of air solonoids and hydraulics of the rides.

I am glad I didn't live there to see Elitch's "moved". Where, did they move it, you might ask? Unbelievably, right next to downtown. Who moves an amusement park between downtown and a freeway? Landlocked, $7.00 Cokes, and all the old charm gone. A bunch of thrill rides, because it's not a real amusement park anymore, it's a Six Flags thrill ride park. Somehow, the city of Denver contributed to have this moved, and most of the good stuff was never really moved, but destroyed.

Six Flags now admits they are losing money on it, and it looks like they are going to sell it. What that really means, is that the new, great Elitch's will be gone too.

Oh, what is on the OLD Elitch property? You guessed it, expensive townhomes with a "communal eating and play area for the kids".

Freaking disgusting.

I am surprised across the country how many old fashioned amusement parks are closing. We still have Disneyland out here (about $50 a person) and Knotts Berry Farm, but those are really theme parks, not the old fashioned amusement park. I honestly don't know where one is nowadays.

 

[knitwits1975]

That's a shame because I used to go to Elitch Gardens when I lived in Colorado. It was moved to I-25 and Speer Boulevard in 1995. Then in 1997, the water park was introduced and in 1998, Six Flags bought it. I think PepsiCo owned it before that. I hope it will be bought by an entity that will return it to it's old self.

 

[tolivac]

How depressing-a sad end for a FUN place-and to be replaced by a boring "condo" development.Wouldn't it be neat to tear down the ugly Condo house development and build an AMUSEMent park there instead.In looking at the link for Whalom park-sounded like a fun place-sort of the ending for Glenn Echo in Wash DC-only the Carosuel survives-some of the other things are still at Glenn Echo-but overgrown with weeds.Remember Glenn Echo as a kid-my mom used to go there when she was a little girl.Glenn Echo is still a park-but most of its rides and amusement have long been removed-the merry -go-round there was in the process of being dismantled by a buyer-knew the guy-but the community bought it back.At least its stuill operating.Wish something like that could happen to Whalom.Its sort of bad-amusement parks are an endangered species!

 

[jaxsunst]

In Memphis, we have lost Liberty Land, and in Little Rock (my home town), Fun Fair Park is gone. I spent a lot of Summer Days at the zoo and Fair Park, I wish I could take my kids there.

 

[jasonl]

We lost Pontchartrain Beach back in the 80s due to crime and some idiot wanting to develop condos. It's very sad when a piece of history goes.

 

[dalangdon]

Omaha had Peony Park, which was a great little amusement park right in the center of town. It had a gorgeous 40's style ballroom and outdoor bandshell/dance floor, as well as a huge pool with a sandy beach.

I supposed the rides were too tame for today's thrill seekers, and the real estate too valuable, but I wish they could have at least saved the ballroom/outdoor bandshell complex. It was really a beauty, and one of the nicest function spaces in town. A perfect venue for bands who have a large following, but not an arena-sized following.

 

[kenmorepeter5ab]

NEW JERSEY

Hi I'm deaf...my name is Peter...I am best friend.

It's also at Palisades Amusement Park in Palisades Park, NJ.

- Peter (kenmorepeter5ab)

 

[shawn]

Palisades Park

There was a amusement park in New Jersey right on the Hudson
river called Palisades Park. It was right across the river from 125th Street in N.Y.C. You could see the top of the coaster from the G.W. Bridge. They had a song about the park
on WABC 77 radio station. My father had a cousin that lived in Maplewood N.J. and I saw the park a few times. By the time
I was old enough to go on my own the park had closed. Now it is a big apartment complex. I still can hear the song today.

 

[cehalstead]

we have Camden Park (at the sign of the Happy Clown)

Only 50 miles from me is Camden Park, in Huntington, WV. It is a classic amusement park, built by the streetcar company in 1905 as a way to promote business (the park was at the end of the line). The park still has the original roller coaster...The Big Dipper....and a carousel built in 1915. Many of the classic rides, such as the Whip, the Dodge'Em cars, and others. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of our annual trip there, whizzing along in my aunt's 53 Buick Roadmaster (in 64) at top speed of 45 mph....(she wouldn't drive any faster, anywhere, anytime).....
Some financial difficulties made closing seem quite possible a few years ago, along with a devasting fire that took the roller rink and SkeeBal games, but it has survived and endured, starting its second hundred years....

 

[andrewinorlando]

Shawn - I'm dating myself here, but I remember that song soooo damned well. Played every summer on the radio.

Greg - you are soooo sentimental...I just love it!!

 

[coldspot66]

"You'll never know how great a kiss can feel when you stop at the top of a ferris wheel,when I fell in love, down at Palisades Park" Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon. 1962 I think!!!
The organ intro at the beginning of the song really grabs ya!!!!

 

[rexaircollector]

Who Remembers This One?

Pacific Ocean Park in Venice,CA. Take a look at the URL. Having lived in Venice while in college, there is no sign that anything of the sort ever existed. I remember our last visit there. It was 1962, we were headed to the park driving in my mother's brand new Mercury Monterey. I can still hear Eydie Gorme's "Blame it on the Bossa Nova" playing on the radio. Good times!! Unfortunately, the area was in a "pre transition" stage, which contributed to the park's downfall. Robb

http://naid.sppsr.ucla.edu/venice/articles/pop.htm

 

[kevinpreston8]

This was at one time a

fantastic place.

My parents moved out to California in 1956, and attended this park with my sisters, who were very young at the time.

They told me many a time what a great park it was, and how those bubbles in the picture went out over the ocean, as did part of the roller coaster. They indicated that they stylings and the design of the place were simply wonderful.

In the early 60s, just as this article mentioned, my parents told me that undesirable elements started hanging around and in the part, because of the cheap price. Bums and wierdos would heckle you. My parents basically said, no thanks after that, and would take us to Knotts or Disneyland, which were only a few miles away.

Another wonderful place gone.

However, I hear the seaside amusement park in San Diego is outstanding, and I plan to visit that with the kids sometime.

 

[drmitch]

Hi Greg! That reminds me of a photo site I looked at a week ago with abandoned homes, factories, and amusement parks. I was taken with this photo of an overgrown ferris wheel.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Canobie

Hey Greg,

I remember the wooden coaster at Canobie. GREAT!! Rich and I used to go there after we moved to NH.

Just drove past there when we picked up the Easy today. What a shame. :-(

Chuck

 

[perc-o-prince]

Crystal Beach

Does anyone remember Crystal Beach in Ontario, across the river from Buffalo, NY? They had the BEST wooden coaster there; the COMET. I used to ride it all the time when it was 2 tickets a ride (25 cents a ticket) from the first time I was tall enough until the last time I went there some 20+ years ago. It was so fast that they actually had to slow it down! I heard the Comet was moved to a park in TX after CB closed, but hears a couple of years ago that it was reassembled in the Six Flags park in Upstate NY. Any confirmations?

Chuck

 

[tommy]

Amusement Parks

Hi, all, although the amusement park near where I live is not really what you would say "Huge", none-the-less it is a fun place near where I live, in Amarillo, TX. It's called "Wonderland Park." They have quite a few rides. There is a roller coaster, that has two double-loops that the cars will go upside-down, the coaster is called "The Texas Tornado." I have personally never ridden it because I'm not wild about coasters. There's also a ride called "Fantastic Journey", anyway--It's quite a fun place. They also have a log ride, that when it ends, it will splash into water, which is great! Amarillo also has a Water Park, called "Splash Water Park", that looks like it would be a lot of fun. Amarillo, TX, has a population of about 175,000--so, not a big town, but there are a couple of places that can be a lot of fun, they also have the annual Tri-State Fair in September, with lots of fun times for family and kids.