Goodbye, my Coney Island

[Illest Waffle]

Today is the last day of Astroland Park as we know it. To all you NYC transplants, I suggest you get on the N,D,Q,F trains and get down there for the last hurrah if you've never been. I want ya'll to know that ultimately I blame you my loss.

Perhaps I'll see ya'll down at the 'walk.

[Heathcote]

i thought this was gunna be another mixtape thread

[Illest Waffle]

You're one stupid white person.

[Thermofusion]

Coney Island is gonna suck post-gentrification.  I mean it sucks now, but in a dirty, nostalgic, glass half-full kind of way.

[Greg Nog]

I will definitely miss the shitty deep-fried food in abundance.

[milesofsparks]

http://www.rides4u.com/index.php/rides/results/cat/41/order_by/ride_name/sort/asc/off/

[crystalcakes]

i went yesterday!  i will upload my photos and post some.  too bad a damn carny stole my phone.  however, it was a fitting end to my day there!

i am still sore from the cyclone.  that thing becomes more painful with each passing year.  i look like i was beaten up.

[Illest Waffle]

I got the mad sadness ya'll. When I first came to NYC in '88 I can't tell you how ecstatic I was to have my picture printed on a banner and ride Dante's Inferno. Motherfucking Coney Island is Six Flags as imagined and executed by regular-ass people. That shit is art.

edit:

http://www.rides4u.com/index.php/rides/results/cat/41/order_by/ride_name/sort/asc/off/

My aching heart. That shit is priceless wtf.

[crystalcakes]

coney island is my most favorite place in new york.  and it's still skanky and gross and dangerous like new york is in movies.  i love it.

[Illest Waffle]

coney island is my most favorite place in new york.  and it's still skanky and gross and dangerous like new york is in movies.  i love it.

You're skanky and gross and dangerous. WTF are you talking about. Admit it, you didn't lose your phone, you just dropped it on the cyclone like every n00b tourist does. Twenty years I've been going to that park and the mexicans pissing in the alley will look out for you like a true bro.

[Antero]

America has no respect for history.

This is why we're fucking up so badly.

[crystalcakes]

coney island is my most favorite place in new york.  and it's still skanky and gross and dangerous like new york is in movies.  i love it.

You're skanky and gross and dangerous. WTF are you talking about. Admit it, you didn't lose your phone, you just dropped it on the cyclone like every n00b tourist does. Twenty years I've been going to that park and the mexicans pissing in the alley will look out for you like a true bro.

hahah!  i also dropped my camera case and left it for a second to take a photo.  when i turned around someone was running away with it.  i hope they enjoy their free phone from 2005 and their 5 dollar camera case. 

i was laughing.  it was generally good natured. 

[crystalcakes]

photos!















www.flickr.com/photos/jettrocks

[davy]

those are great! i want more.

[davy]

i went to six flags a few days ago for the first time in a decade, and it was predictably meh. i mean, the rides were fun, but where's the flavor?

[Maaik]

There's no money for it.  Unless by "flavor" you mean "that faint foul smell in the air and rednecks in sports bras."

[Thermofusion]

I haven't been to Six Flags Georgia since I was in elementary school, but I remember it was the summer the Ninja opened up and everybody was all OHHHHHH SHIT THE NINJAAAAAA!!

Growing up in Charlotte, Carowinds is still a sentimental fave but the park always suffered from a lack of A-level coasters.  They may have fixed this by now as I haven't been in about seven years.  In high school we took weekend road trips up to Busch Gardens instead.  That was a long fucking way to ride some roller coasters.

[Maaik]

Waff's gonna mail me anthrax if I completely derail this thread, but did anyone ever visit New Jersey's Action Park back in the day?  I was reading about it and it sounds kind of mythical.

I haven't been back to Six Flags over GA since tMO stopped working there and I couldn't get in for free anymore.  It was kind of fun while it lasted.

[Andrew_TSKS]

In high school we took weekend road trips up to Busch Gardens instead.  That was a long fucking way to ride some roller coasters.

Good god, from Charlotte? What is that, a five hour trip? I mean, shit dude... that place is like 50 minutes from my house!

[Thermofusion]

Injudicious road trips justified themselves when I was 17, stir crazy and could occasionally get regular gas for 0.99/gal.  Plus Busch Gardens was kind of a special place, all foresty and faux-medieval and shit.

[davy]

i've been to carrowinds, that place is great. it always amused me that instead of using looney tunes characters like six flags, they used much more obscure hannah-barbara characters.

crazy six flags story of the day? i was waiting on erin and my sister and her husband to ride that agrophobia thing--i wasn't about to--when i noticed that my cell phone, which had been in my pocket all day, was no longer in my pocket. shiiiiiit. so while they were riding, i checked a couple benches and a ride or two to see if anyone had turned in a cell phone. i thought it would be in one of those bucket seats on the goliath coaster, but when they didn't have it, i had no idea where it could be. my sister dialed my number. no answer. i gave it up for dead and resigned myself to spending $$$ to replace it. fuck. trip ruined.

a half hour later, my sister got a call from my number. hope! it was a security guard, yay! my phone was at the front gate, yay! on our way out, i stopped by to get it, and found that it was all cracked and shit--still operable, but wtf. turns out, the security guard found it....wait for it....

IN THE PARKING LOT UNDER THE BATMAN RIDE. that shit flew out of my pocket on the corkscrew and traveled no short distance before crashing into the asphalt. the display screen is cracked, and the joints are a little loose, but it's good! trip saved!

[Maaik]

Good thing the dude didn't have to get decapitated to retrieve it.

[davy]

well that's the thing...the phone wouldn't even have been found if it hadn't flown completely clear of the decapitation area. i mean, it was in the parking lot! that's some sailing, right there.

but yeah, we discussed the decapitation, and decided that it had to be one of the metal side-bars that did it. nobody's foot could've knocked a head off at 50 mph. and if it did, that person would certainly have noticed.

[Thermofusion]

i've been to carrowinds, that place is great. it always amused me that instead of using looney tunes characters like six flags, they used much more obscure hannah-barbara characters.

Haha, yeah!  Back in the day they had an island in the middle of the park called Smurf Island (and this was a time when the Smurfs had already been off the air a good while) with a Smurf forest and Smurf village to explore, etc.  You had to take a Smurf boat to get there and there was a Smurf snack bar.  It was all Smurfed to the max.

Meanwhile they sported a Scooby Doo rollercoaster, which was a shrunken down wooden coaster.  There was an actual Hanna Barbara-land at one point with Fred Flintstone walking around and even as a kid I kinda knew in my heart that Carowinds was all "these are the best licensing opportunities we could afford, you little runts, we're not fucking Disneyworld."

Now the Hanna-Barbara stuff is all Nickelodeon themed, which is probably a minor step up toward relevance re: today's youngin's but it would be a lot more hilarious if there were still an extant Smurf Island where kids could wander around wondering "wtf is a Smurf"

[Thermofusion]

but yeah, we discussed the decapitation, and decided that it had to be one the metal side-bars that did it. nobody's foot could've knocked a head off at 50 mph. and if it did, that person would certainly have noticed.

what is this decapitation business all about?