They pack the amusement park on Sunday, its final day of operation
OCEAN CITY — It looked like a busy summer day Sunday as patrons packed Gillian’s Wonderland Pier on its last day in business on the Ocean City Boardwalk.
There were long lines for many of the rides, adults were smiling as they grabbed for the brass rings while spinning around on the historic 1926 carousel, children laughing on the kiddie rides inside and out, and families were having fun savoring their last opportunity to make memories at the amusement park.
Some came to use up their saved up tickets. Others came for one last visit to an amusement park that has been at Sixth Street and Boardwalk for nearly 60 years.
Everyone interviewed said they will miss Wonderland Pier.
“We’ve been coming up here since I was little. My parents own a house in Ocean City,” said Margaret Spross of Havertown, Pa. “It was always the way we closed out summer. We would come, do rides one last time, all of our cousins and everybody, so I’m really going to miss doing that every year.”
She was celebrating her daughter’s first birthday “so we’ve got about 18 of her cousins here,” she added. “And all of the aunts and uncles and both sets of grandparents.”
Asked what she’s going to miss, Roe Besaw of Mullica Hill was emphatic: “Every single thing. The iconic carousel, the wonderful Ferris wheel, years and years of coming here to do this. We’re going to miss it terribly.
“We hope somebody buys it,” she added, laughing.
Her daughter, Andrea Mazzei, also of Mullica Hill, echoed her mother. She said she would miss “all the childhood memories. Now I have my own child and we’ve been here two summers and we’ll miss passing that legacy on and all the fun memories we had every summer.”
Mazzei said she loved all the rides, “but the log flume was my favorite. The frogs (a kiddie ride) is my son’s favorite.” Her son is two and a half.
“I’m very new to this part of New Jersey,” said Renee Mazzei of Williamstown, who said they moved to the area to be closer to her daughter-in-law. “I think it’s crazy that the young children are not going to have this wonderful place. I wish somebody would buy it. It’s really a shame that now when people come with younger children, they’re not going to have this entertainment.
“I was originally from Brooklyn,” she said. “We had Nellie Bly.” (That children’s amusement park honors the intrepid female reporter by the same name who lived from 1867 to 1922 and went undercover to investigate stories. A contemporary reporter has to note that.)
“We’re going to miss all the little kids rides because this was the place he got to do rides for his own age,” said Kylie Johnson of Medford, as she fed her 3-year-old son a piece of funnel cake as he sat in a carriage. “That’s what we’re going to miss the most. Our other little guy is almost 2.”
Another woman and her tween daughter said they were going to miss everything about Wonderland and the memories they would make. The mother said she would most miss the carousel— “it’s a classic” — and the daughter named “the spinning thing” (the swings). Smiling, they hurried off without giving their names.
An older couple, Marie and Bernie from Pennsylvania, said they would miss bringing their kids to Wonderland, something they had done for more than 30 years.
“It’s always a fun family place,” Marie said.
Of course their kids now have kids and they have been coming to Wonderland as well, part of the generational nature of an amusement park that has entertained families since the mid-1960s.
Bernie said he would miss “all of it.” They brought their first child, born in July, to the boardwalk as a baby in 1986, but just missed Wonderland because it had closed for the season.
“But her and I have been coming here since the ’70s,” he added. Smiling, Bernie said the monorail, that goes through the interior of the building and outside around the park, was his favorite “because it’s comfortable and lazy.”
“I’ve been coming here for like 30 years since I was really little,” said Liz of Haddon Township, after she snapped a photo of the carousel on her cell phone. “That’s why I was really excited being able to come today. I will definitely miss the carousel. The Ferris wheel has always been a key part of the boardwalk. If I’m here and looking up, especially when it’s nighttime and it’s all lit up, it’s fantastic.”
She said she also would miss the energy. “Everybody is here to have a good time. It’s a cute, fun place to be.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
