I know my current obsession will wear off eventually, but right now I am spending a LOT of time looking at web sites that somehow have reference to “Whalom Park.” I think this is one of the stages of mourning, isn’t it? (The other stage is wondering why my site isn’t anywhere near the top 5 results pages if you google for Whalom Park. I’m insulted. No, not really.)
I think he’s concerned about me. He probably should be, but what can you do? I may not have mentioned that Junior and I went to the Whalom driving range to hit a bucket of balls on Columbus Day. As always, we drove by the park and I took a mental inventory of how things looked. It appeared to me that there may have been some activity, but nothing specific. Things looked as they had for most of the past year. As we rounded the corner past the roller rink, I looked up at the boarded windows, and told him (again?) that was where I learned to roller skate with my Brownie troop. I can still picture the inside as it was the last time I saw it, probably in high school.
Imagine my shock when I heard that the next day it was torn down. Not weeks later, the next day. I hope my brain had film loaded in it, because that’s the last mental picture I get to take. We drove past the building again a few days later and it was 7/8 down. So much for that.
No, I haven’t driven by the park since they took down the Roller Coaster. I want to, but I don’t want to. You know?
Here are pictures from August 2000, our last trip to the park. Junior (blue shirt) and his cousin hit the kiddie rides. Had I only known it was the last-last trip, I would have taken MANY more pictures.
Really upsets me that the condo people could not even keep a part of the park and use it for the condo association and members. They are so hell bent on making a buck off of every sq foot.
Only thing left is Canobie Park. Digital used to rent it Sat and Sun for 5-6 weeks after Labor Day and open it up for employees for free.
When I was a kid in the 60s I went to Castle Hill Beach club in the Bronx. I finally found someone that put converted home 8mm on to google video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8879380211517379718
The fun part is that I was there that day they had the swimming races !! I could not see myself in the video but what a blast to see some old memories.
I looked but no one has put up video of Whalom Yet. Darn..
Went to see “The Departed” – real good movie, keeps kids away though. Scorsese went to my high
school a bit before me but we had some of the same favorite teachers. Regis Philbin was around
at the sametime.
CUL
If you search hard enough, there are videos out there. I know that I found a copy of the commercial out there, which was a nice find. I don’t know that I have any video – I can say that I *wish* I did. Of course, you can buy what I’ve heard is an amazing movie made by a local college student that has a TON of video, interviews, photos, etc. It’s available from the Fitchburg Historical society, or from this site (for more $): http://www.der.org/films/whalom-park.html
Canobie Lake Park is a great park. They avoided becoming another Whalom by actually investing in the park – getting new rides that people actually WANT to ride, not just some old cast-off being sold at auction. I had a great business plan for Whalom, I was just unfunded and powerless.