Palisades Amusement Park

Palisades Amusement Park finally closed its doors following the 1971 season, though this picture from the Vintage Bergen County photo web site seems to make it come alive.

All the amusement parks, state and county fairs from my youth are all starting to blend into one happy memory. Time will do this to each of us. I do recall a few rides home from Palisades Amusement Park in our family station wagon, which was without air-conditioning. We didn't know any better and just endured it, along with the long line of traffic to get out of the park.

By the end of a day at Palisades you were a combination of tired, hot, and full of foods like hotdogs and cotton candy. There was never much talk of doing anything else once we got home but go to sleep.
In the morning the prizes we had won the day before may have lost some of their luster though we couldn't ever shake the fact that we had expended a tremendous amount of energy in a short period of time. This was much to our parents delight no doubt.

Water Fountains and Water Bottles

As children we drank from water fountains and garden hoses. I can't imagine doing either today. We would line up to drink from the fountain at the playground at Willard. If the line was long there was an unspoken time limit for each person. Usually the oldest person on line would arbitrarily determine when someone younger was done. This is how many things were settled in the school yard, like who's turn it was to use the stickball court or the best patch of field for a football game. In these latter cases the older boys would simply say the game was over and that was it. Though in the case of the water fountain a tad bit of mercy was displayed and cutting in line was not highly thought of by anyone.

I saw this same outside Willard fountain vandalized more than once. The water flowed down the steps and onto the dirt playing fields. After a while when the flood became to noticeable a janitor would come and shut it off. It would remain off until the time came that someone in authority believed the kids who played at Willard had learned their lesson about vandalizing water fountains. Last time I looked the fountain was gone. I suppose it was tampered with too often.

When the fountain was out of order, or we were not near by, we would drink from any handy garden hose. It didn't taste too bad as I recall if you let the water in the hose run out and you were drinking from a fresh flow.

Today we have water bottles. You can't go anywhere without seeing them littered about or clutched in some sweaty person's hand. We had litter of all kinds as kids but nothing to compare with today's water bottles. This is my observation and nothing empirical. The water bottle I expect will be regarded by history as a bad thing, despite all efforts to recycle them by charging a deposit on each one. I say this because they have helped in the decline of a very useful social custom, that of waiting one's turn. Whether it was waiting for a chance at the fountain or a turn at the hose, these moments of delayed gratification could be viewed as character building.

This is just one man's view, and a slightly old school one at that. ;-)

70th Aniversary of D-Day

Pont du Hoc.

Brave, brave, brave. This is all that comes to mind when I think of these volunteer soldiers. They landed on a beach in France and knew there were no boats coming to take them back. Only boats with more people like themselves.

This day always gives me pause for thought, especially now that pictures can be easily displayed on the Internet in a wide variety of formats. I truly wouldn't have it any other way if they prove to be an inspiration to, or an education for someone.

Peace.