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Brothers,
1950s
My older brothers and I take a boat ride
at the Boardwalk.
Willie
King
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Games, 1948
I began working at the Boardwalk in
1948 at the Milk Bottle Game, one of two such concessions owned
my aunt, Patricia Woolridge.
 A couple of true hotshots would come by just about every Sunday
in the summer after my senior year. They could clean the platform
with a ball or two almost every time. In their mid-20s from over
the hill, they weren't show-offs, and we became friendly competitors.
After I'd get off work, the three of us would head over to another
base-ball-throwing concession - Walking Charlie.
At the Walking Charlie game, a much more difficult challenge,
manikins dressed in various kinds of clothing weaved along on
a moving track. Wooden heads topped their bodies and a tin can
was attached to the top of each head. If you knocked over the
can, you won a prize. If you could throw the ball hard enough,
the force of the blow against the head would tip over the can.
But we three always upped the ante and only counted direct hits
on the cans in our contests.
There was more than one Sunday afternoon when I would blow my
entire day's wages throwing against those two guys. The prizes
never meant anything to us. It was the competition that counted.
Layne LeComte,
From the Santa Cruz High School Class of 1954's 50th Reunion
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Giant Dipper, 1980s
 In
the early 1980s I had a business meeting with my board of directors
in Santa Cruz and we had a rides pass for all those attending the
meeting. Only one other board member was willing to
ride the Giant Dipper with me during our one-hour lunch break. We
were very lucky because even though it was in January and it was
raining, we rode the roller coaster for the entire hour. The
only hitch was we had to exit the ride after each run and dash back
through the turnstile and re-enter the ride. That one hour
of continuous roller coaster riding was the best day I ever had
at the Boardwalk. I also have not been able to ride the roller
coaster again. 25 years ago I was young, wild & crazy
and I could do stuff like that. Now I don't think I could
keep my lunch past one ride.
Joe O'Kane |
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Silly-Willies, 2005
My first ride on Double Shot was fun
but terrifying! My best friend and I were scared to death and we
didn't want to go on it at all. But, we did. When our pictures came
out, we looked like we were saying our last prayers! On the same
day we decided to be silly and go on Free Fall about 5 times. It
was getting us ready for the Double Shot. We loved it and everyone
kept staring at us because we looked really big to be on the ride.
We also went on Ghost Blasters at least 6 times that day. I only
won twice, but it was fun. I always made my friend sit on the right
hand side because the skulls pop out on the right.
Jessica |
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Bumper Cars and Walking Charlie,
1951
The girls riding the bumper cars
sometimes would get tangled up in a corner, and we would have
to untangle them. That’s how we met them. It didn't hurt
us either when we would give free rides to the girls we'd later
meet at the drive-ins.
I also worked at the Milk Bottle and Walking Charlie baseball
games and at a game next to the Funhouse where customers tossed
darts at balloons to win prizes, operated by the parents of
another member of the Class of '54, the late Bernard Mana.
Aldo Mazzei
From the Santa Cruz High School Class of 1954's 50th Reunion
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Hours in the Fun House, 1966
From the age of 6 years
to this day my most memorable moments were when my brother, sister
and myself would spend up to 4-6 hours in the Fun House.
The Fun
House had walkways that went up and down. There were crazy mirrors
and a sack race where you would line up about 6 across. The best
thing was a spinning wheel. Everyone would race to get as close
to the middle of the wheel as possible. Then you would sit and brace
yourself. It would spin faster and faster until there was only one
person left on it and people would cheer for you.
On the Boardwalk
my favorite ride was the Wild Mouse. The single car would go up
like the roller coaster and lean over the edge of the rails. When
you would lean around the corner you were either scared or having
the time of your life. The Boardwalk has now been at least
45 yrs of fun.
Gary Mullins
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THE FUN HOUSE, 1950s
As a kid, my favorite
Boardwalk attraction was the Fun House. I
loved looking endlessly at my wiggly reflection in the Fun House
mirrors - first I looked tall and thin, then short and stout -
like Alice through the looking glass, I could morph right before
my own eyes and it didn't even hurt!
Passing through the tumbling barrels DID hurt, however. Logically
it seemed possible to walk through the moving barrels without
falling, but before you knew it, you were on your knees, and side,
and back, and the world was completely upside down and topsy-
turvy, and you had absolutely no control of the shifting surfaces
beneath you!
Towering over us all, however, was the giant slide! The
idea was to grab a burlap sack and mount the huge ladder that
seemed to be hundreds of feet into the rafters of the building
- then to ride your burlap down the slide over the bumpy wooden
structure, landing in a crashing heap on the hardwood floor! Most
of us did well to sit up, but some kids tempted fate by lying
down, some faced backwards, and some even tried going down on
their knees or standing up to show off!! That slide seemed
endlessly long, very fast, and each bump would throw me off my
burlap sack so that my knees, thighs and elbows scraped against
the huge wooden structure with painful friction! Never did
I leave without several red welts as souvenirs, but the scrapes
seemed like a mild outcome compared to the very real possibility
of being thrown over the slide's edge and plummeting to my death
on the wooden floor below! It was dangerous - and oh so
memorable!
Robin Lasser
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The Plunge Bathing Suit, 1950s
My sister and I have
always loved to swim, so as kids, mom often brought us to the Plunge
at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It
sounds silly now, but back then, swimming in that gigantic indoor
pool was even more of a novelty to us than playing in the surf! Hannah
and I would splash about for hours among the crowds of tourists
from over the hill.
One fateful weekend, however, we
forgot to pack our swim suits when we left sweltering San Jose. We
were chubby kids, and I was sure we'd be out of luck, but the
lady at the Plunge's ticket counter produced two rental suits
and sent us to the ladies locker room to change. I knew the
Boardwalk rented beach umbrellas and towels, but this was like
a dream!! I can picture that bathing suit to this very day,
almost 50 years later!! It was a
heavy-duty black one piece, not very stretchy, with one detachable
strap which hooked on the front top left, crossed behind the back
of the neck, and then hooked on the front top right. The
suit was designed with several gathers and puckers in just the
right places to flatter many different body types, and the color
black was much more becoming than the bright flowered print suit
I'd left behind! I was transformed in my own mind into a
bathing beauty!! Late that afternoon, I wrapped that black
suit discretely in my shirt and smuggled it home, convinced that
owning that glamorous black bathing suit would change my life
forever! And it did!!
Since that fateful day, almost
every single bathing suit I've ever owned has been a black one
piece. None
of those, however, are as memorable or as significant as that
very first spectacular model I stole from the Plunge's rental
department.
Robin Lasser
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The Carousel, The Rings and that CLOWN!, 1978
No one can forget the carousel! I can remember riding it and being
too small to reach the rings. My brother would ride on the horse
in front of me and I would root for him to make it in the clown's
mouth, but was always disappointed every time I went around and
stretched to my limit and still could not reach that steel ring!
Then one day, around age 6, my mom was standing next to my horse
and holding my leg, and I stretched that leather belt just as far
as it would go. I reached and finally, finally, I grabbed that ring.
I felt the cold steel in my hand and relished in it until I realized
I had just a few seconds to pelt it into the that clown's small mouth.
I chucked it and it got caught on my finger and shot straight to
the ground. 6 years of waiting, and I missed the mark. But I got
to feel it. That was the first one that I had touched that I had
not found on the ground. After a few more rides, I was at least
hitting near it. Being able to reach that metal arm was a rite of
passage for me and meant that the Carousel now was so much more
than picking a pretty horse or going up and down. I no longer had
to sit back and watch.
The feeling you get when you go around at the end and you feel
it slowing down and knowing you might not get another one, and then
just as you reach it, you hear that familiar sound and another one
pops out. Victory! This is my favorite memory I have of the Boardwalk
and being able to share that with my kids when we go back there,
is priceless.
Marni (Barber) Moore
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Octopus, 1972
We grew up in San Jose and didn't have
a lot of money to spare. For a summertime treat Mom would pack up
all 6 of us kids and take us for a day at the boardwalk. It
was great fun. We would spend all day on the beach and in
the water.
Then when night would hit we would ride the rides
on the Boardwalk. This was my favorite part, until Mom decided
it would be great fun to ride the Octopus. This ride
sat right on the edge of the Boardwalk and when we went up and the
car turned around and around it scared the beejeebes out of me. This
10 year old thought the car would fly off into the ocean.
Still
to this day, I cannot ride it without thinking of her and how she
tried to console me all along while laughing her head off.
Mom passed
on 01/01/2000 but memories of Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk will live
on forever.
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The Giant Dipper, 1958
I went to the Boardwalk often with my family, but would never
ride The Giant Dipper. In 1958, when I was 14 years old, I
attended my boyfriend's graduation dance and after the dance we
all went to the Boardwalk. I was so exhausted that I forgot
I was afraid to ride the Giant Dipper so when he wanted me to ride
it with him I did. It was so much fun that when I later went
to spend the weekend with my cousin who lived in Santa Cruz I wanted
to ride it again. She lived in what is now the Santa Cruz
Harbor Master's house. We walked to the Boardwalk along the
ocean, timing it so the tide was out. We went up to the Giant
Dipper and bought a ticket and got on in the front car. The
guy that was operating the ride that day was real cute and we flirted
with him and he let us ride all day. We had a GREAT time.
Diane |
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First Roller Coaster, 1996
My dad took me to the Boardwalk when I was 5 and I had never ridden
a roller coaster. When we got there my dad asked me if I wanted
to ride the Giant Dipper. I was scared but I said yes. There was
no line so we got the front seat of the yellow train. It was one
of the best times of my life! I remember the first drop. I was hanging
on while my dad had his hands up it was a blast!
Ethan |
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