The Day I Went to Idora Park as a Guest
I appreciate all the comments and stories I have received on my blog. I have always considered Idora Park a magical place to me. And that's why I always call it so.
It was magical when I went there when I was very young and got to ride the rides and see things, like my father always took me to see the antique car shows.
I remember going with friends and my cousins to Idora Park and all of us having fun together. All the memories that were made are so vivid in my mind—memories that have a wide range of things that happened to me, like the time I almost fell out of the Wildcat and my friend pulled me back in.
One time when I worked at the punk rack, I met one of the cutest little brunettes I've ever seen. And so smart! We talked for easily over an hour. But I never got to see her again.
All the friends that I knew and made at Idora Park, I wish I could see them again. I know they're getting together another Idora Park employee reunion, I will definitely not miss this. And you can bet that I will have a Blog on it, and we'll be doing some pictures live.
So this week, I'm going to share with you one of my stories about Idora Park, the time I visited as a guest with my own family.
After I was done with high school, I had gotten jobs in different machine shops. But that was at a time when the mills were leaving or already gone, and so there weren’t a lot of machine shop jobs.
I got a job at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in 1981. In 1984, St. Elizabeth’s had an Idora Park day. I'm sure when they scheduled it, they didn't know this would be the last day the park would be open.
And so my wife and my two daughters came with me to Idora Park. I was very happy at the thought of my daughter is getting to see the magical place I've always talked about. My oldest daughter was 7 and my other daughter as almost 4.
As I said before in another blog, I always loved to watch the people walk into the park and see the children’s faces just light up at this magical place. Now I got to see my children with that same smile and wonderment. They just wanted to run through the park and see everything they could. I think the only things that slowed them down was us telling them to slow down—and of course, seeing all the cotton candy and the french fries and all the food that they couldn't wait to have for themselves.
We did so much that day and rode so many rides. We rode on that famous merry-go-round. My oldest daughter April and I rode on horses right next to each other. And my other daughter Jessica and her mom sat in one of the chairs that were on the outside riding with us. These days, Jane’s Carousel is in Brooklyn, coincidentally, just a few blocks away from where my youngest daughter Jennifer lives now.
I remember when they got off the ride they were running off. They couldn't wait to get onto the next ride. And the next rides would be in Kiddieland. They rode in the boats first, then on the motorcycles, then on the little Jack Rabbit. They screamed and they yelled. They had so much fun. It brought back so many memories of when I used to work there.
As soon as they were done riding the rides at Kiddieland they wanted a Sno-Cone. It reminded me about when I work there and there was a pair of brothers that were that Sno-Cone stand for years—I’d gone to grade school with the one brother, John. Those girls had the happiest smiles on their faces, which matched the color of their Sno-Cones—one blue and one red.
We rode in the antique cars. April and her mother rode on the Caterpillar, then the Tilt-A-Whirl. Then we walked down and all of us rode the Turtle. I admit walking down there past the entrance to the Lost River and looking at the Wildcat it made me very sad. Especially when I thought of when I worked there and roll the Wildcat almost every day. I missed hearing the screams of joy from people riding it.
We stayed the whole day because I wanted the girls to be able to see Idora Park as it looked when it was lit up.
Unfortunately for me, all the pictures of when my children were younger got destroyed when a pipe burst over them. I wish I still had the pictures of them, but the memories of their faces will never go away from me.
Actually, I still do have one picture of April. You see, this was April's second time at Idora Park. The first time was General Electric Day, when my father worked there. If you've ever seen the book, Idora Park: The Last Ride of Summer, by Rick Shale and Charles J. Jacques Jr., look on page 106. That's my daughter April standing with the Idorables.
It was late and already dark and time to go home. As I started walking towards the exit towards the bottom of the Midway, I saw Pat Duffy Junior standing out in the Midway. And a thought came to me.
I ran over toward the punk rack and jumped over the wall. The workers were amazed and didn't know what to do. I grabbed one of the soft balls and jumped back out. Pat Duffy had just turned around to see what was going on.
He saw me standing here standing there next to him and said, “What's up, Chuck?”
I stood there with a softball my hand and said, “Pat, would you mind signing this for me?”
He said, “Of course,” and I still have the baseball to this day. It says “Pat Duffy Jr Idora Park 1984.”
I consider it one of my most prized possessions.
That truly was one of the last days of summer of this kind this city will ever see.
Thanks for sharing this memory with me. See you on the midway!