Ooooh, I went to one of these . . . Jersey's Pallisades Amusement Park. It must have been the season before it closed.

To say that it was heavily advertised would be an understatement. The pitch and jingle (Come on over!) played all over radio and TV; the placed loomed large in the minds of siblings and relatives and classmates.

All I remember is a spook-alley ride, the immense frustration and not being able to go to half of what I wanted to (a freak show!), and the observation that it was mostly just a bunch of carnival rides dragged together.

Living by the Long Island Sound, I never got the attraction of the World's Largest Salt Water Pool. It was like boasting about an unlimited buffet of chicken livers, pumperknickle bread, and topioca.

And like Coney Island, whose glory days my dad caught the tail end of, it's a bunch of apartment buildings now.