First Job - First Love

They say that there are some things you never forget and Palisades Amusement Park will always be in my memory.  It was the summer of the end of my freshman year  in high school  and my best friend and I considered ourselves the luckiest girls when we were hired to work in the Custard Stand.  Some of the people we worked for may not even be with us today since they were older adults and we were just teenagers.  There was Bill and Ella and they took their work seriously were as my girlfriend and I were just having the time of our lives.  We would swim in the pool before our shift began, sell custard and then hop on all the rides after our shift.  We made friends with all the other employees and almost everything was free.  We would work everyday in the summer because to us it wasn’t considered work.  Our net take home pay would at times be $50.00 and we considered ourselves rich.  Remember, jeans and shoes were under $10.00,  Then one day while swimming at the pool and laying on the boards (the place all the teenagers hang out)  I met my first love who worked in the pool’s locker room.  It truly was a wonderful part of my teenage years.  The sad ending to my story was that summer was the one and only summer that we worked for the park. The park had closed forever at the end of the summer of 1971.