Entertainment Available When I Was Younger Entertainment has changed a lot since I was little. The biggest deal for me was going to Coney Island. The scope of all the rides and attractions was larger than it is today. There were several big parts to the attractions. There was Steeplechase an area which had many rides and attractions and for which you could purchase a ticket for I think about 12 rides, but as a kid we would get a lot more because people who were leaving had unpunched rides on their tickets and would give them to us. We also could find those twelve ride tickets thrown away and some still had rides available. Besides Steeplechase, there were all the rides and attractions outside. One could even make a fun day out of the trip just by going on rides outside. The beach was also extremely popular as was the boardwalk. An example of some of the outside rides was the parachute jump and the bobsled to name a couple. Then there was the food. Nathans was world famous and we couldn’t wait to get the world-famous hot dogs, and fries. I don’t know what kind of magic they used cooking the fries, but they were incredible. If we didn’t want to take the long train ride to Coney Island, there was a smaller version called Rockaway Playland. It didn’t have as many rides or attractions but there was enough to keep us busy for a few hours. There was and probably still is an old wooden rollercoaster there we used to go on anytime we visited the park. We got so used to it we often ate hot dogs while riding on it. There was a great beach there and as teenagers we went to that beach often with our friends. Another place which was a smaller version of Coney Island was Rye Playland. It had some rides and a nice beach and was good for us when we wanted to get a change of pace. The place we liked the most after Coney Island was Palisades Park in New Jersey. It was smaller than Coney Island but had some great rides along with some of the usual attractions. There are two things I remember about it. The first is how clean it was for an amusement park and the second was the rollercoaster. When you went down that first drop an overhead beam seem to be aimed right at your head, but at the last minute the coaster dipped below it. The first time I rode the coaster as a kid, that beam scared the heck out of me. It was a sad day for me and my friends when the amusement park was torn down. It had lasted for 73 years. Today the area is home to a luxury high-rise building complex. I guess the land just became too valuable and real estate investors were just salivating over it because of its location. There were other places we went to for entertainment. Of course there were the movies, that goes without saying. But there were plenty of other venues. One I will always remember was a live outdoor show with Hopalong Cassidy. It was almost like a rodeo. Hopalong was a very famous cowboy at the time. When he came riding out on his horse, I remember how excited I was, after all I think I was only about 8 years old. Another famous attraction my mother would save up for was the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Baily Circus. It had three rings with different acts constantly performing and it lasted for a couple of hours. The circus would travel from city to city and sometimes perform in large tents. In my area there was Madison Square Garden and they would go there so we had to take the train there. One of the things sold at the circus were live lizards. They were small chameleons in boxes. My mother bought me one and when I got home it escaped into our apartment and two weeks later it appeared again and I captured it. Since it was a chameleon, it could blend into any background making it hard to find. Another thing we used to do was go bowling. I remember before any of us could drive we took our bowling balls and walked for miles to a bowling alley and since we were young it really didn’t bother us. The alley we wanted to go to had a special deal. If you got a strike while the red headpin was up, you got a free game and that was the reason for the long walk there. We actually got some free games. We also like to shoot pool. There were two different types of pool halls available. One was the dark, smokey places which looked like something out of the movies and the other type were more like family places. We just would go to the closest one most of the time without regard for the type of place it was. For a while we were big on archery. There was an outdoor range which had a huge net all around it. That was when I learned there were all different strength bows and archery was not as easy to be good at as I thought. I remember picking a bow only to find out I could hardly draw it back. We were teenagers at the time and rather than admit the bow pull was too strong for me I mustered all the strength I had and let the arrow fly. In the course of this the string ripped across the inside of my arm and the arrow missed the target and hit a wooden stanchion which was holding up the net at one corner and down it came. The arrow had broken the stanchion in half. As I grew older, I was looking for more grownup things to do and I was going out with girls. I remember going to my first Broadway play. The tickets were expensive but of course I wanted to impress the girl. Jason Robards was the star, but I don’t remember the name of the play. I went to a few other plays at the time, but decided I didn’t really care that much for them and actually preferred movies. There was something I really did like and that was auto racing of all different types. I took dates to drag races and even a Gran Prix which was held on Long Island at the time. It was held in Bridgehampton in 1961 and later in 1969. I was there for the 1961 race. Today the race track is closed. Yes, there was plenty to do before Disney and I haven’t covered it all.
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