Everyone seemed to enjoy reading about Kennywood from my last post. I was discussing Kennywood’s rides with a friend that also grew-up in Duquesne after they had read the post. The discussion turned into a debate about what was the best/favorite ride when we were younger. I told them I would put it up for a vote from all of the Kennywood devotees that read my blog. So, check out the survey below and vote for YOUR favorite. If you don’t see it, you can add it to the list. Don’t forget to vote!!
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I would love to hear from you, so please drop me an email anytime you would like. Email me at: jameshvolk@gmail.comA Duquesne Hunky
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The Duquesne Hunky 
Everything old is new to someone: They are bringing back the big blue whale!
http://triblive.com/aande/moreaande/9562792-74/ark-noah-kennywood#axzz3tANIDmTj
Today is the last Saturday before Labor Day; that means it’s the 83rd(!) annual Croatian Day at Kennywood. I can’t be there this year, and I know that Jim’s not too keen on Pittsburgh Dad, but this is a fitting way for all us Hunkies to end another season:
Let it be known Lou, The Pittsburgh Dad has officially grown on me. I don’t remember what episode won me over, but I look forward to each new installment!!!
Sretan Praznik rada! Neka Bog blagoslovi sve naše prijatelje i obitelj, koji su mogli uživati u hrvatsku dan na Kennywood! Mogu namirisati punjena kupus već!
(Happy Labor Day! God bless all of our friends and family who are able to enjoy Croatian Day at Kennywood! I can smell the stuffed cabbage already!
Ok, Jim, ‘fess up. Google Translate, right? If not, I’m really impressed. I’ve been studying for 2 years now and conversing with my cousins overseas so I know that Google often gets it wrong; it’s not ‘na Kennywood’, rather ‘u Kennywoodu’.
Oprostite!
Vaš stari prijatelju, Lou
Lou, based on the fact that my French grades from Père Claude were always awful and indicative of my inability to learn a foreign language, I am now using my computer skills to communicate in another language! Boh vám žehnaj Google!
my favorite kiddeland ride was the swan boats. Then when I moved to the
big park it was the Racer & the Rotor. Then when I turned 60 it was the Sky Coaster I think that was the name of the bungy jump ride.
Just had to write in—-just because of all the good times out in Kennywood. Living so very close to the park, six blocks away, can you guess where I and my girl friend spent every single night during the Summer. As a matter of fact I tell people that was the best part of my education out at the park all Summer long. Never worked there just walked around and meet people ( mostly boys ) and just had plain fun. We only rode the rides for our picnics and Slovak Day. That is about the only time the parents came and we had a picnic lunch by the Jack Rabbit. Oh also on Westinghouse Day, they had a buttermilk truck out there and the best cold buttermilk ever. Early on one year we were chosen to be one of the lucky ones to ride on some of the rides just to see how they work and that was all for free. Had a blast and still remember that like it was yesterday. Loved walking the bridge, then one year or maybe two walking all the way around thru the “dump” because they were fixing or putting up the new bridge. Then walking along the boulevard no fear talking to stranger who would pull over and try to pick you up. Ahhhh !!!!! Those were the days my friend !!!!!!!
Jim again thanks over and over for all the work you put into doing this. It means a lot to all of us. Thanks again and God Bless you and your growing family.
From a Duquesne Place Girl………..
My earliest favorite was the Merry Go Round until I was finally big enough to do all the big roller coasters and bumper cars. They inspired me for all my speed junkie years!! Still really like the big coasters except the back doesn’t abrupt changes as much anymore
Loved the Old Mill…………….but then I loved Noah’s Arc almost as well…..
Yes, and the Merry Go Round….so many memories…
I left Duquesne when I was 11, so I missed all the fum as a teenager. I never could get enough time to ride the horses and playing skeeball in the arcade. I could hardly wait for the Kennywood School day. I remember walking down Grant Avenue from Aurelles Street with our food to catch the streetcar to Kennywood, and then finding an open picnic table. It set there most of the day and no one stole it. We spent the entire day. My Parents were Saints!
Bob McCabe
Bob what year did you graduate and where did you live on Auriles?
Sorry I reread and see you weren’t DHS grad but what year did you graduate?
Loved the racer. Actually believed the coaster I was in was going to win each time.
I think the Scooter and bumper cars were 2 different rides. As I remember, the Scooter was located next to the Kennywood railroad, above the Mon river; the cars would move individually and separately through a rickety wooden track-maze. You couldn’t really drive the Scooter cars, like you could drive the bumper cars. ( I forget the name of the bumper car ride. “dodge ’em” maybe)
I wondered about that Mike, but I was almost certain that’s what they were called. Hopefully, someone will set me straight! LOL
The one you’re talking about is called, simply, the “Auto Ride”, isn’t it? The Skooter had that funky double-sided sign, so if you looked at it head-on, it looked like “SSKKOOOOTTEERR” (didn’t it?). And, don’t quote me on this, but wasn’t the Skooter in the vicinity of the Turtle, just up the hill from it?
Yes, that’s what I’m remembering too. It was next to the entrance to the pool from inside the park. Always, always watched the lights at night as we would drive by of the fountain in the pool changing colors. The scariest ride of all was going over the old bridge on the boulevard going into Duquesne. We would beg my dad to go the long way and not go over it.
Maybe not my favorite, but my most memorable ride was/is the Merry-Go-Round.
Working two summers as the boatman at the lagoon meant I came to be what they now call “cross-trained”. First bolt of lightning and everyone headed in, (except the occasional nutcase), and everyone including the employees in the park headed for cover, the closest being the M-G-R. So I would help out there until the storm passed. Of course, we all remember when there was NO fence, and REPEAT RIDES were PERMITTED. Having worked the park for a l-o-n-g time, by the 60’s, Tony Sacramento was almost like a god, just below ‘the little big man’; Tony taught me the proper way to hop on and off the wheel at full speed. It’s really easy once you get the hang of it, ….most of the time.
Once during a storm, all the horses had riders, Mommys and Daddys were standing, no one was getting off and others were trying to get on. I was walking the edge of the wheel which was approaching full spin and someone bumped me off. As the boards around the edge were wet, and I wasn’t expecting to do it, my exit was somewhat less than graceful, including a several foot slide! Tony saw me and let fly with a string of verbs, adverbs and adjectives that could fry an egg; he thought I was showing off, until the guy who pushed me appeared and apologized. Of course I knew better than to try that with a crowd, and in the rain.
From that day, I would never hop on OR off at full speed unless the sun was shining.
I loved your post on Kennywood- so many good memories were made there when I was a child. And so many generations of family had been to the park- I have a photograph of my grandmother’s grandparents dressed up like they were going to church but the image was taken at Kennywood.
My mother, born in 1936, recalls going with her little brother and her mother on the streetcar to Kennywood. Her mother carried a box lunch in her lap, with egg salad sandwiches (no meat on Fridays!) tidily wrapped in wax paper. She clutched that box tightly as the streetcar crossed the rickety bridge over the river, a ride equal in thrills to anything inside Kennywood.
I see so little written about the ride, “Ghost Ship”. What happened to it? I can’t remember what was inside, only that it was scary enough to 8 year old me that I kept my eyes shut tight as the car made its terrible trip along the dark path. But my 6 year old sister would ride alone!
And the ponies…I was crazy about them. A ride around the rail path, by myself, was the closest I’d get to being a cowgirl once a year.
Thank you for the memories. It’s always amazing to me to consider that growing up, computers were considered to be Important Equipment or play a starring role in a science fiction book. Who would have thought that they would have the capability to gather people together to remember, celebrate and cherish wonderful memories?