The Longest Day
Now, if this title sounds familiar to you, it’s because “The Longest Day” was a World War II movie starring John Wayne and a bunch of other well-known actors.
Well, my day wasn’t as bad as a war, but it was a long one.
In the spring of my third summer of working at Idora Park, I had gotten another job working at Lawson’s Dairy. Unless you’re my age or a little older, you may not remember Lawson’s. But people around my age will probably remember them and the commercial that they had. It was about the truck drivers who hauled orange juice from Florida. “Roll ooooooon, Big O! Get that juice up to Lawson’s in 40 hours!”
(Video by RetroColumbus.Published on Jul 23, 2007)
So, I started working at Lawson’s after school, and I was working from 3-7, which really wasn’t bad. It still gave me time to do my homework or go out or do chess team activities at Ursuline High School. But when it came to the summer, I worked at Lawson's from 6:30-10:30 a.m., and then I’d work at Idora Park from noon to 11 p.m.
As you know, Idora Park did a lot of mill and union picnics and things of that kind. Needless to say, Sheet and Tube and Steel Door were two of our bigger picnics.
Now, when these companies had a picnic, they wanted the park to open at 11 a.m. and close at 11 p.m.
So, one Saturday I went to work at Lawson’s at 6:30 a.m. We just had gotten a truckload of products that morning, and I had a lot to put away and find space for. I don’t know if you remember, but the Lawson stores were not that big.
I spent the morning trying to find room for a bunch of ice cream either in the back cooler or in the coolers in the store. It took me quite a long time to do because there were a lot of other things besides ice cream to put in the coolers. Plus I had to stock the shelves with milk and everything else. And then after that, I had to wash the floor down.
I got off at 10:30, and there was a shortcut from Lawson’s to my house that only took about 10 minutes.
I ran as fast as I could and got a ride from my house to Idora Park. I got in there at 5 minutes to 11 and Pat Duffy the Third was waiting for me.
I was still a breaker at that time, and because of the size of the picnic, we wanted to make sure that all the games not only had enough prizes but more prizes in storage behind the games.
I took the lower half of the Midway and Pat took the upper half, which meant I had a lot more games and stuffed animals to stock.
As I was stocking games, I was amazed at how many people were piling into Idora Park. I mean the Midway was just full of people. They were playing the games and waiting in line for the rides. And even though the park was that crowded, there was no trouble, maybe because it was a family day people didn’t even seem to mind waiting for rides.
Even the Wildcat, whose line was so long it went past the bingo games, and the five or six lines for Idora fries were three quarters of the way to the Silver Rocket ride.
It took quite a while to stock all the games because the punk rack was all stuffed animals, and the water pistol game was mostly stuffed animals and small things so there was a lot of prizes to put out.
I also had Skee-Ball and the .22 shooting game and the ring toss over the blocks of wood and a couple others.
Plus I had to check on the prize machines in the Arcade by the park office.
As a breaker, I could walk around the park a little bit if I wanted to, but on a day like this day, I had to stay by the games, just in case they needed help or if they needed more change.
Looking back now, that was a lot of responsibility for someone who wouldn’t be 15 for a couple more months.
But even though it was a lot of work, I really loved working at Idora Park.
By the time I got everything stocked and taken care of, it was time to give out breaks. So I had eight 15-minute breaks to give out.
In between working at Lawson’s—where I didn’t get a break—and doing all the work at Idora Park, I was glad to get my 15-minute break, which I spent getting some pop and a large fry. But trying to find a place to sit was hard because the picnic was so big and even the picnic grounds were completely full.
Even four hours into the day, people were still filing into Idora Park.
Even though I was doing the games, I never really paid that much attention to Putt-Putt. Pat the Third said, “I need someone to give Putt-Putt their break.”
So, I went down there and gave them their break. Now, I played quite a bit of Putt-Putt when I was younger, but I had never played at Idora Park. It was fun watching everyone else play. I was thinking to myself the next time we got slow I would go down there and play some myself, but that’s another story for another time.
Now the next thing to do was check again to make sure everyone had prizes and everyone had change, and then after that it was time to give lunch breaks.
By the time those were over, it was around 7 p.m.
This was really getting to be a long day.
Then it was time for me to take my lunch break. I was kind of hungry, so I got myself a hamburger from the concession stand and a large fry and a Coke and I just sat and watched everything on the Midway.
I was observing all the families having fun at the games and around the rides. I think the most fun was watching the games. I remember watching this father at the punk rack trying to win his daughter a stuffed animal. The little girl was around 5 or 6 years old, but she really thought her daddy was going to win her a stuffed animal. And after many tries he did, and he handed it to her—and the look in her eyes was like, My daddy can do anything.
Enjoying his family at Idora Park and winning his daughter a prize made him a super daddy.
As they walked up the Midway a little further, she had one hand holding her daddy’s hand real tight and the other hand holding onto the stuffed animal so tight like she wanted to make sure she was never ever going to lose it.
(Video by devroshart. Published on Apr 21, 2013)
By the time my break was over, it was starting to get dusky.
Dusk was one of my favorite times at the park, because that was when they turned the lights on the rides. To me that was one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen, Idora Park, all lit up like Christmas. The arms of the Ferris wheel going so high in the sky, and all the neon lights on top of all the games that brightened up the Midway with different colors. It definitely is a sight that I will never forget and I’m glad of that.
And around 8 p.m. was when things changed. Instead of people filing in, families were starting to file out especially the ones with the younger children who were in their parents’ arms being carried out of the park. Even though they were tired, they had smiles on their faces. I spotted that little girl whose father won her a stuffed animal—her father was carrying her out with her arms around his neck. He was holding her with one arm and holding the stuffed animal with his other arm, so she could see it in case she were to wake up.
I think you can see why I liked working at Idora Park so much. The families with older kids stayed all the way to 11:00, wanting to ride the rides as long as they could. At 10:15, they called for last rides. That way, if you knew you probably couldn’t get on the ride you were in line for, maybe there was another one you could jump on real quick before the park closed.
We left the games open for a little while as people were walking out, and at 11:30 we closed the games.
By the time Pat the Third, George Goodman, and I were done closing all the games and collecting the money and bringing all the back to the office, it was midnight.
It definitely was the longest day.
But I knew the next morning, I would get up at 6 and get to work at 6:30, and have another full day ahead of me.
And as I think of those days and the families having fun, and the little girl whose father won her a stuffed animal, it makes me think of the Idora Park song—”Anytime is a good time, a good time for everyone. Rediscover Idora Park and you’ll rediscover fun!”
Remember, Jim Amey is still on the mend, so be sure to check out the Idora Park Experience Museum's website. Buy something. It will cheer him up.
And if any of my Idora Park friends are reading this, hit me up on my Life on the Midway Facebook page. I'd love to get together and talk about the good old days.
See you on the Midway!