So Many Fond Memories!

Hello Vince,

I stumbled upon your site a couple of years ago….. I love it .Thank you for bringing folks together to remember the park. I have been thinking of adding my memories of the park to your collection. Here are some:

I had a long and varied connection to the park. I was brought up in Englewood N.J just a few miles away on Palisade Ave. My parents would take us to the park every now and then and it was heaven. Riding the rides and enjoying the energy of all the people having the time of their lives. I can still smell those fries!! Saving up those Pal matchbooks like gold for the trip. We would eat cotton and candy, candy apples till we would almost bust. Riding the bumper cars, the Ferris wheel, the house of mirrors and all. We knew our parents must really love us.

In 1968 while attending summer school I met a friend from Cliffside Park, Luis Caamano. A funny, and crazy, and out going guy who was originally from the Dominican Republic. At this time in my life I was 16 years old and very introverted and didn’t hang out a lot.. Luis would ask me every day if I would go hang out with him and his friends in Cliffside Park. I would say yes…. and duck him every day. One day he cornered me and “made me” go with him. I had a great time, and made many good friends. Luis also pushed me into becoming a singer in some of the local rock bands. I sang for a while in a band called Forest Brethren from Fairview. We would play Epiphany church Cliffside and the other CYO, JYA dances and anything else we could. Artie Roach was the band leader and a phenomenal drummer, even at seventeen. The late sixties/ seventies were a rockin’ time. Of course there was the park. Friends from Cliffside worked there of course so we could ride the rides for free and play pinball till our flipper fingers were numb. A favorite time was running into a guy from my school (Dwight Morrow Englewood) Joey Paradisio. Joey was running a balloon concession so we stopped to hang out. We preceded to all start breathing helium and cursing at people in Italian and Spanish!! It was crazy. We had those squeaky helium voices and people would laugh as we cursed at them so it just got funnier and funnier. LOL!!

A couple of years later I met Kathy (Katy) Hughes whose dad Mickey was part owner of the park. We had mutual friends in Leonia and hung out doing the stuff everyone was doing in the late sixties and early seventies. Playing and listening to music and partying.. She even gave me a ride to one of my bands gigs in her dad’s gold Benz that I dubbed the Gold Panzer. It was a monster slow heavy car that had a refrigerator between the front seats….. very convenient for those times. I definitely felt like a rock star rolling up in that ride. It was like a German pimp car!! Some of my friends worked a summer at Mickey’s park Willow Grove.
It was a sad day when i heard that the park was closing to build condos. So many good memories. I miss hanging out with my friends and family and also miss driving down the Westside highway, seeing the park across the river. It was like looking to Mecca, or heaven and longing to be there. Palisades Park will live on in our memories.

Michael Johnson Below: me at the park at about 7 years old wearing my favorite white bucks!! Hi Ho silver!!


Michael Johnson