...survived right up until the end. My uncle would invite us to the Cleveland Twist Drill company picknick. I'll never forget the sights, sounds and smells of Euclid Beach! Who needs Disneyland when this was right in your own neighborhood. It was a sad ending when some of the wooden rides were bulldozed or torched by arsonists. The Humphrey popcorn balls and taffy kisses are still available locally, and worth every penny just for the memories!

Closed in September 1969 and I'm old enough (barely) to remember the last season. The big coaster was the Thriller and, sadly, I was just too small to ride it in '69. But the carousel, ah, there was a wonderful carousel - and it still exists. The one thing I remember the most was "Laughing Sal," a large animatronic painted wooden female character (who seemed to be 9 feet tall to me) who laughed uproariously and scared the heck out of me! There were two books written about the park still widely available. My uncle bribed a guard who let him in to the park after it shut down to take 8 mm movies - as far as I know the only such footage that exists. He also made a model of the Thriller out of matchsticks. The day they brought that coaster down broke his heart. My grandparents lived a few blocks away so we went there pretty regularly, at least that last season. Modern parks just don't have the ambiance of the old parks.

Yikes! It seems like later wooden coasters used twice as much support wood. I guess that would have jacked the ticket price a full penny.