Sunday, May 18, 2014
Remembering Fairyland
From [the screams on hoffman drive] by Matthew Kremer
it is funny to walk past life
and figure it to be a place
unlike what it is.
for instance, mozy a
block northeast and find
yourself at the heart
of queens center mall,
one of the most profitable
in the entire united states,
according to those who
keep tabs on such things.
take back the clock
fifty or sixty years,
and the spot was an
amusement park for kids
known as 'fairyland.'
open year round, it seems
to have been a rinky-dink
spot you'd take the family
without having to travel
far or break the bank.
there was nothing
all that glamorous
about the rides.
from the pictures
i've run across,
there were boats
with little bells that
went round in a circle
and a wooden coaster
called the 'comet jr.'
that seems to have
been a main attraction.
the cost was predictably scant:
single tickets, good on any ride,
were priced at 14 cents
and were good for adult
or child admissions.
if the kids didn't act up,
you'd take them down to
wetson's for a milkshake.
the park was demolished
in 1968 to make way for
Hot Topic and Bling Bling.
you'd be hard pressed
to imagine the site
housing anything like
the squeals of children
in the nineteen sixties.
7 comments:
America Lost. Age of innocence led to Age of crap. No one wearing burkas or saris....
Age of innocence,the early sixties,with civil rights struggles and the invasion of vietnam,come on.
It was so simple back then,no smartphones,no internet,no advertisement splattered everywhere,and no shopping malls.
and the film projector sounds beautiful.
Is Mr.Kremer have any books or in any publications?(besides this one and his blog),because he should be.
you could also take them to the awesome giant howard johnsons which was still up and running until the early 70s on queens blvd.
Thank you. My uncle ran the ferris wheel on weekends. Loved that place. It was definitely an age of innocence.
I remember it, they had a small gauge train that went around the park. It had a 4 cylinder engine and ran on propane. A good roller coaster and lots of arcade games
Back then there were no BS gangs, kids stayed in there ride seats and obeyed the instructions. Sadly you could never have 1/2 of those rides today.
Due to all the feral children of illegal immigrants who cant comprehend rules (and why we have rules) the insurance costs have wiped most of them out.
I played up at Rye playland with the band last year, it was really depressing. The crowd was mostly urban nasty people throwing garbage on the ground and behaving like animals. We required special parking & access for out trucks and could not get ANY co-operation with the staff. Racist employee's of ethnic inner city female jail inmates and Sec 8s unhappy they must work. Even more unhappy a band attracted all these "white people" into THEIR PARK !! Several fights happened, one between some upstate bikers and urban hoods
Rye was nothing like it was in the 60s and it cant possibly last long. I'm told Rye Playland has been owned by Westchester county for quite a couple years visit it soon because it wont be around much longer. The middle class attendance is gone
Gee...with two contiguous councilmanic districts represented by 2 openly gay councilmen (Van Bramer and Dromm) maybe we should resurrect "Fairyland".
This is the future when population invasion and cash cow anchor babys outnumber available work 10-1 on this Island.
Lets face it, these kids are not going to be white collar Wall street or rocket scientists with the NYC school system being nothing but a babysitting service for the 3rd world .
This only skills these animals will have is operating crow bar's and slimjims to come through your windows.
Queens is destine to become another Detroit (or Bakersfield)only worse because all these millions of “south the border” anchor kids are being taught at home by angry hateful adults that America (Aztlan) belongs to Mexico and truly believe everything we “sustantivo” (crook) Americans own rightfully belongs to them.
A big problem is coming, and the dumb sheep don’t understand what’s going to happen in 7- 12 years.
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