Idora Park - Fun for Everyone
I think everyone knows it would have been very hard to go to Idora Park and not have fun.
Like so many people, I have so many fond memories of Idora Park. In fact, there is a Facebook group called Idora Park Memories.
And there are a lot of people who write on the site who tell their fun times at Idora Park and how much they loved it. Whether it be people who work there or people who just went there and have such fun memories – I guess if you lived in Youngstown and surrounding areas, Idora Park is in your blood.
Definitely in your heart and your mind. It will always be in my mind. When I heard about Jim Amey opening up the Idora Park Experience I couldn't wait to go.
But the story is really about my fun day at Idora Park.
Now, as I said, I was a breaker for a year-and-a-half. Then I moved down to the Putt-Putt, so I did have some free time on my hands, especially on the slow days.
So this one day, this really slow day, I said to myself, I think I'm going to have some fun and play all the games everywhere.
Of course before I started playing games, I had to make sure that all the games were open, that they all had prizes, and that everything was set for the people who worked in them.
And check with Pat Duffy Jr. to see if there was anything special he needed done.
Now of course I've played the games there before, like when I had to fix them or help the guy who, if I couldn't fix them, he would fix them because he was the guy in charge and he knew how to fix all of them.
But today was just a fun day for me that I just wanted to have a good fun day.
I started out at the arcade by the office and just start playing games. And I had a lot of fun.
Right in the middle of the arcade, closer to the doors, was a periscope game where you would set the periscope to shoot down ships, and that was always fun. I loved that.
And of course, there was claw machines where you could win candy or prizes, and of course I did that. I’m still pretty good at those claw machines – just as the cashier at the Denny’s on Belmont Ave.
After having fun with that it was time to start giving breaks. Since I was down at that arcade where a lady named Annie worked in the cage to give out change, I gave her a break. And she was a very nice lady a little past retirement age, but she wanted to work. She, like George Goodman who was in charge of the games, lived in Florida in the off-season. She would come up in the summer to visit her family and work at Idora Park.
Maybe that's what I meant, once Idora Park got in your blood it just never left you. You just loved it and whether you were coming there to enjoy the park or work there, you liked it so much it just became a part of your life.
And Annie wasn't the only one. There were a couple more ladies who worked closer to the penny arcade and the dart game and the toss the softball in the basket game who also came up during the season to work at Idora Park.
So each game where I stopped to give break to someone, I played for a while unless there were customers of course.
The next game was where you had to throw hoop over a square block. I think that was the hardest one there was to win. I know I couldn't get it over the big price block myself.
After that I went over Skee-Ball, then after I was done with Skee-Ball, I gave the guy who was working the punk rack his break.
I always like to give him his break because that was the first place I worked at Idora Park. Plus, since I played a lot of sports I could usually get the three clowns down, which would usually bring people over to play the game to see if they could do it.
Then there was the .22 duck and after that I went up to the penny arcade and relieved Jimmy -- although Jimmy usually stayed in the back room on his breaks, and that’s another story.
So after I was done giving Jimmy his break, and Claire who worked in the cage to give out change her break, I decided to stay for a while and play the games there. Of course Jimmy and I played the bowling game.
I also went to the stamp game what was really a thing it was a stamper where you could write something on the stamp. Now at the Idora Park Experience in Canfield, they actually have one of these stampers. The only problem is that it doesn't work. And I don't know if they could get the coins anymore anyway even if it did work. But I get a feeling if they could, Jim Amey would do it.
So after I was done bowling with Jim I went over to slide machine where the arm slid up and it dropped your prize into a hole. This game is also at the Idora Park Experience in Canfield and it does work.
Here's a good picture of it.
In fact, at the time I'm writing this the game is actually at the Tyler History Center in Youngstown.
And on that machine – the actual one at Idora Park, not the one Jim Amey has – is where I won a little plastic gun. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to get it because when I was younger I used to have things like the Lone Ranger cap gun.
It took me a couple tries but I won it, and I was so happy.
So after playing a few more games, like the baseball game and some of the claw games, I went over to throw the ball in the basket game. This was only two games down from the penny arcade.
Know if you ever try to do this you know that's hard to get the balls to stay inside the basket. You had to put some kind of like backspin on it to get it to do it and not through it very hard which was not easy.
And I went around and check to make sure that everyone was stocked and had everything they needed at their games, checked in with Pat to see if there was anything he needed done. It was kind of a slow day.
Pat said to make sure everybody swept out their game, and if I wanted to I could put some extra stuffed animals behind the games because the following weekend they were having one of the steel mills picnics, and we would need everything stocked up plus some in reserve.
So that's what I did, game by game fill up the games, put stuff in their back rooms so they had extras for that weekend, and by the time I was done with that, it was time to eat and give people their lunch breaks or dinner breaks depending what you want to call it.
After I gave everyone the breaks, I decide to go and get myself some Idora Park french fries.
As I was eating my french fries, I turned around and looked at the silver rockets and looked underneath and thought, I don't think I ever played the nickel toss game.
That was the one we threw nickels inside of goblets. That was kind of fun I spent a couple dollars in nickels, but I did win a few goblets so it was still a pretty good day.
Then after that I went over by Helter Skelter, which was between the bumper cars and the Wacky Shack, to a basketball game. I shot baskets for a little bit, and then I decided I better take the stuff that I had won that day and put it in my car. I mean the stuff that I won out of a machine or at the nickel toss.
I didn't take any prizes for when I was playing the punk rack or Skee-Ball because I worked at those games. It wouldn't be fair for me to play them and get the prizes off of them because I was so good at all those games.
To tell you the truth, I can't remember if the nickel toss was run by Pan Duffy who owned the games or if it was owned by one of the people that had other stands underneath the Rockets.
I never gave them a break, so I'm thinking maybe it was owned by someone else but I'm not sure.
So if any of you people that are reading this know, send me a message and that way I'll know.
By then, it was getting dark and it was time for the park to close, so I went down by the games on the lower Midway to get ready to help them close up.
This is one of those days you don't forget because it was so much fun and I still have that plastic gun and I still have those two goblets that I won.
That are part of my memories of Idora Park. And they always will be.
See you on the Midway!