The suburb of NYC in which I grew up, believe it or not, is a beach town. Albeit a beach strewn with discarded syringes nestled by a tide that’s more oil slick than saltwater.The beach is adjacent to Playland, an 80-year-old amusement park that as a kid was a thrill to have within biking distance. That was until the New York transit system began offering our sketchy neighbors from the Bronx a cheap bus ride to the park. Which was about the same time our bikes began disappearing from our garages.
The boardwalk here was the filming location for the movie Big, in which the young Tom Hanks character is granted his wish by Zoltar the Magnificent.
On the left is the rickety, wooden Dragon Coaster, and surviving a ride served as some sort of passage into manhood. It was also the roller coaster Glenn Close creepily enjoyed with Michael Douglas’ daughter in Fatal Attraction.
Oh, and George Washington once slept in one of the homes in my town, but his doing so didn’t gross anything at the box office, so I won’t delve any further.
