... are amusing at any age and we had a great time on the ferris wheel and roller coaster and frog hopper and bumpercars and arcades and buying cheap crap with out tickets like a rubber stretchy man who can be put into all sorts of nasty contorted positions. bad stretchy man. bad. i'll have to ice my ankle tough as it was rammed repeatedly by the competition. it was worth it though.
as a child there was a small kid's amusement park along the north shore of long island called Bayville. a few rides , a great carousel, miniature golf and bout a half mile of terrific places to eat from posh dining over the sound to little lobster shacks with bricked patios. It was a constant joy in my life even through late teen years.
our rituals were simple. we'd buy our tickets for the rides, my dad would let us go while i spent the evening schmoozing with the owner and the four of us would go nuts on whatever rides we liked. my brother favored tge roller coaste and the airplanes with mock machine guns, my younger sister likes the spinning dishes, my older sister liked looking cool and haughty but someone still managed to come with us and I went straight for the blackk horse with the jeweled harness who was twisting his head to the side to watch me rise.
the food was simple, daddy with cams on the half shell, marsha proving she was cool again but sharing those wads of phlegm with him and bob and I order hamburgers. He asked for orange soda, me for black cherry. My mother usually had crab legs and a coke.it was a several times a week summer ritual for as long as I can remember anad so last night, hugging and laughing and playing with theose well rubbed wooden bals in the arcade ( no computer games) I was thrown back to the 50's only this time it was better. my husband , my own money and no one to tell me when to go home. and yes I rode a black stallion on the 1911 carousel and patted him hello while i held hands with jim.
