Roller coaster of memories (Palisades Amusement Park)

NorthJersey.com ^ | 10.06.05 | ADRIENNE LU

[Coleus]

By day, Vince Gargiulo sits at a desk designing books, catalogs, brochures and menus for a printing company. In his free time, Gargiulo often drifts back to his childhood days at Palisades Amusement Park, from the clanking noise of the roller coasters inching upward to the tangy scent of french fries doused with malt vinegar.

It's not a hobby he keeps to himself, though. After work, Gargiulo, 53, belongs to hordes of Palisades Amusement Park fans, a seemingly insatiable group sprinkled across the globe, ever yearning for more stories about the now-defunct park that once straddled the border of Fort Lee and Cliffside Park.

As the self-appointed keeper of the park's history - his official title is founder and executive director of the Palisades Amusement Park Historical Society - Gargiulo is preparing this week to hear from hundreds more fans with the release of his second book on an amusement park that, in its heyday, rivaled Coney Island.

"It's a very passionate subject for these people because it's so much a part of their childhood, and a good part," Gargiulo said, reflecting in the den of his Little Ferry bachelor's pad, which is decorated with posters of the park, including a caricature of him riding a roller coaster.

Titled "Palisades Amusement Park," Gargiulo's latest book features hundreds of postcards spanning the park's history, from its opening in 1898 to the day it closed, Sept. 12, 1971, to make way for high-rise apartment buildings.

Published by Arcadia Publishing, the book comes 10 years after Gargiulo's first, a coffee-table tome published by Rutgers University Press titled "Palisades Amusement Park: A Century of Fond Memories." In between came a PBS documentary that Gargiulo wrote and co-produced. He keeps at it, he says, because he feels a responsibility to preserve the stories of an era gone by. "I kind of like keeping the history of the park together," he said. "I think it's important." Like many neighborhood kids, Gargiulo, who grew up in Cliffside Park, often sneaked into the park through a hole in the fence. He later learned the practice was condoned by the park's owner, Irving Rosenthal, who figured the children would spend money once they got inside.

Gargiulo was in his mid-20s when he and a friend started reminiscing one day about all the fun they had at the amusement park, from the spectacular rides, to the gigantic saltwater pool, to the concerts featuring the top performers of the day. Gargiulo and his friend started to sketch a map of the 38-acre park based on their recollections. Some parts just didn't mesh, though, so Gargiulo delved into the libraries in Cliffside Park, where he couldn't find anything on Palisades, and Fort Lee, where he found only a slim file holding three newspaper articles.

Thus began a quest to learn all he could about the history of the park. Gargiulo spent the next year reading newspaper stories on microfiche at a library in Hackensack, storing his photocopied clippings in a file cabinet at home. He lost interest after a while, but when he returned to his old project in the early Nineties, he dove in with fresh zeal.

In 1994 Gargiulo launched a Web site dedicated to the park, where fellow fans could share their memories. It seemed everyone had a favorite. "I think maybe a lot of people who talk about Palisades - their memories are clouded by nostalgia," he said. "There's nothing wrong with that." Steve Urbanowicz, an amusement park expert who said Palisades gave birth to his love for amusement parks in general, said he, too, has found everyone seems to love talking about the park.

"You ask them to talk about Palisades and they just come gushing forward," said Urbanowicz, who has written books on roller coasters and theme parks. "It was just a phenomenal place." After his first book was published, Gargiulo started collecting postcards, hunting for them on eBay and at postcard conventions. The most expensive cost more than $100.

Today he has several hundred of them, neatly organized in chronological order in three black binders, one way of keeping in touch with happy memories from the past. "It's sad that we don't have anything like this today," Gargiulo said. "Times are different." You'd think a person would grow weary after hearing one childhood anecdote after another on the same amusement park. After all, how many times can a person listen to stories about roast beef sandwiches or the Cyclone or even the wild promotions, like the elephant that waterskied to Manhattan?

Like his audience, though, Gargiulo seems never to tire of the stories. "After the first book, everybody wrote to me with their fond childhood memories," Gargiulo said. "They're always still unique. It's like a fingerprint of somebody's childhood."

[Coleus]

http://www.palisadespark.com/

[Coleus]

"A little about New Jersey or as some outsiders say New Joisey"

[Domestic Church]

I'll never forget getting to the top of the roller coaster and looking out across the Hudson at the Manhattan skyline before the coaster took that big plunge!

Thanks for the memories.

[ex-snook]

I was there is the mid-thirties. 70 years ago is quite a memory stretch. It was a ferry boat ride across the Hudson from Manhattan to NJ. I think it was around 125th St. What I remember most was the huge pool. I think they called it a salt water pool. We didn't do any rides, just walked around. It was a good childhood memory.

Perhaps better was a ride on the elevated subway lines. A nickel for my father and a 5-6 year old could limbo under the turnstile. The seats were straw and the windows were open. Some of the quick turns between buildings was like a roller coaster ride [or so it seemed]. How did we ever manage without an I-Pod.

[RightWhale]

Skip the trouble and skip the fuss,
take the . . . beep, beep . . . Public Service Bus.

[Buck W.]

I still remember the TV commercial jingle. I'm singing it now!

[VeritatisSplendor]

How did that go?

Palisades -
you'll have fun
In the pool
Come on in
You'll get cool
Come on over

I think I went there once when I was about six but I sure saw the commercial a lot.

Mrs VS

[Buck W.]

Ride the coaster, get cool
in the waves in the pool
You'll have fun
So Come On Over!

I remember hearing it several times a day for years.

[upchuck]

I grew up in Teaneck and River Edge.

I have many fine memories of Palisades Park. The roller coaster, for it's time, was awesome.

I took many dates to the park. I remember holding hands made sticky by cotton candy J

[Responsibility2nd]

ping to me