Chicago, October 08: One by one the Kiddieland amusement park’s 27 rides were shut down forever on Sunday, giving the highest bidders in an online auction a final spin, splash or crash on their favorites.
Memories at the park that opened in 1929 flowed like the free soft drinks at the suburban Chicago attraction.
“We’re just going to take it one ride at a time. I think it’s going to be tough when we get to the end of the day,” said Mary Rynes, a member of the family that has operated the park since it began.
A tearful Bonnie Parker, of nearby River Forest, who paid $100 for her family of four to take a final spin on the Ferris Wheel, had been coming to the park for 40 years.
“I just had to be here the last day,” she said.
Ironically, small, family-owned US amusement parks like Kiddieland, have done a booming business during the economic downturn, said Craig Burda of the National Amusement Park Historical Association.
Reasonably priced and often close to home, the parks are an alternative to a vacation trip for recession-hit families.
But these family-owned businesses can fall prey to family squabbles, said Jim Futrell, the association’s historian.
In the case of Kiddieland, one faction of the founder’s family owned the land and declined to extend the lease to family members operating the park.
“Kiddieland has always been a successful business,” Mr Futrell said, adding the park and its vintage rides were “impeccably maintained.”
—Agencies