time machine: send me back to coney island, circa 1926
a weekend of parades it was. Saturday there was coney island's famous mermaid parade, which was a festive gala of women in pasties, shiny colors and body paint. today there was the pride parade, which was impressively large and full of rainbows and drag queens and everyone else. both days it rained though, which didn't exactly set the most festive mood. Today's sprinkles and almost steady mist weren't nearly as disruptive of yesterday's flash floods. luckily, the skies held out for most of the mermaid parade but after half an hour after it ended they opened up and drenched the old amusement park.
coney island was exactly what I wanted it to be: run-down, out-dated, old and tired. i literally got chills up my spin when the Q train passed Brighton Beach and I had my first glimpse of the Cyclone with my own eyes. Of course, I've seen the historic wooden rollercoaster on the discovery channel but it was much more impressive in real life. I have this very vivid memory from when I was first allowed to have a TV in my bedroom. My uncle sold me his old 19" RCA he got from the union sometime (it had a united airlines wing-span logo stuck on it)--he sold it to me for real cheap because my parents, as always, didn't want me to have something for nothing. So I saved up and put it in my room at 225 Cayuga on this blue square trunk that I found in my garage. This was back when my room was COVERED in magazine clippings and sponge-painted walls so the place was very busy. I had it wired into my computer and stereo and there were speaker wire, phone cord and extension cords strung all over the place. Anyway, I remember laying in bed, which at the time was a wood frame painted white that my dad and I built together, cuddled up in my navy blue Venture comforter, watching a show on the history of roller coasters. That's when I became enamored with the Cyclone. This was probably seventh grade. I had already done my 4th grade Illinois State Project on Chicago's Riverview Park and had grown up going to Six Flags and hearing my dad and aunts and uncles and their friends talk about spending their childhood at Riverview. It was right next to Lane Tech (where my uncle pete went to high school).
The Viper at Great America is modeled after the Cyclone, which I didn't get to ride this time because of the rain, but I plan on going back MANY times. I did ride the Wonder Wheel, a ride at Deno's Wonderwheel Amusement Park (The Cyclone is at Coney Island is technically a neighborhood at the tip of Brooklyn. There's a beach, a boardwalk and a strip of run-down shops, more amusement rides, carnival games, hot dog stands and the like). The Wonder Wheel was a lot more hardcore than I expected. We took a swinging cart, of course, assuming that "swinging" meant the occupants could sway it back and forth. It really means that unlike the stationary carts, these do some fast little mini-dives every once in a while. The first one really took me by surprise and was a huge thrill. It’s hard to describe. It was amazing to see the beach and the boardwalk from that high. Even though it was cloudy and windy and crappy, the beach was full--there were even some crazies in the freezing water--and throngs of people crawled the boardwalk between rows of ring tosses and pop-the-balloon stands. I could perfectly imagine women in heels and flapper dresses and ladies in petticoats carrying parasols walking around the park, taking a ride on the extraordinary new Wonderwheel (which was finished in 1922 and has been accident-free for it's entire life) with their new beau. its so odd to look at the evolution of community entertainment. in its time, coney island was affordable family fun that everyone could enjoy. I’m struggling to think of the same kind of destination nowadays. yeah there are traveling carnivals and places like aquariums, but its not the same.
God, I'm so nostalgic, even for things I didn't experience.
So yeah, I'm totally and completely bewitched by Coney Island. I'll post pictures eventually, although I didn't bring my camera because of the rain, so they'll be nice 1.3megalixel cell-phone quality.
[the worst drink in the history of the universe]
I was pretty disgusted, however, with the $10 a pop buy one, get one Daiquiri. First off, don't trust any alcohol that's buy on, get one free; especially if it's served in a plastic blue yarder bong cup. I knew this from the start but decided what the hell, im on coney island. the stand that was selling these drinks was located right across from the "dancing lady," a mechanical puppet that danced when you paid a quarter. (see what I mean about evolving entertainment?) they had three flavors: blue, yellow and red. they were supposed to be mango, fruit punch, strawberry, respectively, but three of us each got a different flavor but they all tasted like shit. the same shit. it was seriously the nastiest drink i've ever had. i literally chocked down the first one during a nice walk on the dirty beach (i was barefoot until I counted three giant shards of glass) before heading back to the stand to redeem my free drink. I'd already figured out that the "fruit flavor" was really just Kool-Aid powder with double-the sugar (slushee mix without the slush) but I had to ask what kind of rum they were using because it was one of the strongest daiquiris I've ever had. So the guy, who had two different size eyes and wore a lot of 'bling' around his scrawny neck, pulls out a bottle of Wray and Nephews Overproof Rum, the same stuff Len had warned be about in Jamaica, only to bring me a flask of it because I just had to try one of the strongest and possibly one of the most vile alcohols on the planet. it's like pure alcohol and these guys were filling like the first four or five inches of the tube with it. The second one did go down better (wonder why).
We brought the drinks on the subway because it started raining so hard and the woman across from us asked "so have you learned your lesson now?" she said that on her first trip to coney island, she'd been suckered into the same drink.
Hell yes I learned my lesson.
coney island was exactly what I wanted it to be: run-down, out-dated, old and tired. i literally got chills up my spin when the Q train passed Brighton Beach and I had my first glimpse of the Cyclone with my own eyes. Of course, I've seen the historic wooden rollercoaster on the discovery channel but it was much more impressive in real life. I have this very vivid memory from when I was first allowed to have a TV in my bedroom. My uncle sold me his old 19" RCA he got from the union sometime (it had a united airlines wing-span logo stuck on it)--he sold it to me for real cheap because my parents, as always, didn't want me to have something for nothing. So I saved up and put it in my room at 225 Cayuga on this blue square trunk that I found in my garage. This was back when my room was COVERED in magazine clippings and sponge-painted walls so the place was very busy. I had it wired into my computer and stereo and there were speaker wire, phone cord and extension cords strung all over the place. Anyway, I remember laying in bed, which at the time was a wood frame painted white that my dad and I built together, cuddled up in my navy blue Venture comforter, watching a show on the history of roller coasters. That's when I became enamored with the Cyclone. This was probably seventh grade. I had already done my 4th grade Illinois State Project on Chicago's Riverview Park and had grown up going to Six Flags and hearing my dad and aunts and uncles and their friends talk about spending their childhood at Riverview. It was right next to Lane Tech (where my uncle pete went to high school).
The Viper at Great America is modeled after the Cyclone, which I didn't get to ride this time because of the rain, but I plan on going back MANY times. I did ride the Wonder Wheel, a ride at Deno's Wonderwheel Amusement Park (The Cyclone is at Coney Island is technically a neighborhood at the tip of Brooklyn. There's a beach, a boardwalk and a strip of run-down shops, more amusement rides, carnival games, hot dog stands and the like). The Wonder Wheel was a lot more hardcore than I expected. We took a swinging cart, of course, assuming that "swinging" meant the occupants could sway it back and forth. It really means that unlike the stationary carts, these do some fast little mini-dives every once in a while. The first one really took me by surprise and was a huge thrill. It’s hard to describe. It was amazing to see the beach and the boardwalk from that high. Even though it was cloudy and windy and crappy, the beach was full--there were even some crazies in the freezing water--and throngs of people crawled the boardwalk between rows of ring tosses and pop-the-balloon stands. I could perfectly imagine women in heels and flapper dresses and ladies in petticoats carrying parasols walking around the park, taking a ride on the extraordinary new Wonderwheel (which was finished in 1922 and has been accident-free for it's entire life) with their new beau. its so odd to look at the evolution of community entertainment. in its time, coney island was affordable family fun that everyone could enjoy. I’m struggling to think of the same kind of destination nowadays. yeah there are traveling carnivals and places like aquariums, but its not the same.
God, I'm so nostalgic, even for things I didn't experience.
So yeah, I'm totally and completely bewitched by Coney Island. I'll post pictures eventually, although I didn't bring my camera because of the rain, so they'll be nice 1.3megalixel cell-phone quality.
[the worst drink in the history of the universe]
I was pretty disgusted, however, with the $10 a pop buy one, get one Daiquiri. First off, don't trust any alcohol that's buy on, get one free; especially if it's served in a plastic blue yarder bong cup. I knew this from the start but decided what the hell, im on coney island. the stand that was selling these drinks was located right across from the "dancing lady," a mechanical puppet that danced when you paid a quarter. (see what I mean about evolving entertainment?) they had three flavors: blue, yellow and red. they were supposed to be mango, fruit punch, strawberry, respectively, but three of us each got a different flavor but they all tasted like shit. the same shit. it was seriously the nastiest drink i've ever had. i literally chocked down the first one during a nice walk on the dirty beach (i was barefoot until I counted three giant shards of glass) before heading back to the stand to redeem my free drink. I'd already figured out that the "fruit flavor" was really just Kool-Aid powder with double-the sugar (slushee mix without the slush) but I had to ask what kind of rum they were using because it was one of the strongest daiquiris I've ever had. So the guy, who had two different size eyes and wore a lot of 'bling' around his scrawny neck, pulls out a bottle of Wray and Nephews Overproof Rum, the same stuff Len had warned be about in Jamaica, only to bring me a flask of it because I just had to try one of the strongest and possibly one of the most vile alcohols on the planet. it's like pure alcohol and these guys were filling like the first four or five inches of the tube with it. The second one did go down better (wonder why).
We brought the drinks on the subway because it started raining so hard and the woman across from us asked "so have you learned your lesson now?" she said that on her first trip to coney island, she'd been suckered into the same drink.
Hell yes I learned my lesson.
posted by Erin at 11:31 PM
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