Palisades Amusement Park: Memories

Two great memories of the park. I was probably 4 or 5 so it would've been '57 or '58. Anyway, my father took me to the park one evening after he got home from work. It was no big deal since we lived in West New York. I recall being amazed at the freak show, especially the guy with 3 or 4 eyes and two noses. That same night Emmett Kelly (the famous "sad" clown) was there and my father asked if I wanted to meet him. He was standing all by himself and it would've been easy to walk over and say hi but I was too scared to do it.

My second memory came years later. I was a senior in high school and 3 of us cut school and drove from Hazlet all the way up to the park because we heard they were closing soon. We went on the Cyclone a few times when all of a sudden, as we were waiting on line to go again, someone called our names. It was one of our former high school teachers, who was now at a different school and he had his group to the park for a class trip. He sarcastically asked if we were off for some reason and we stumbled our way to a comical answer that he knew full well was a bunch of baloney. He never squealed on us and we all had a great laugh over it.

Steve Ortlieb

Two Great Memories of the Park