At a mall in Rockland County known as the Palisades Center Mall a very super large mall that will put Rockland County along with the West Nyack area on a map, there are lots of stores & shops & lots of places to eat at like restaurants of all sorts but besides restaurants to eat at there is a very super large Food Court area in it. It is like the food court of many malls only it is twice as big. To make it suitable for adults as well as family & children, they made that large Food Court area to look like a small carnival & amusement park area. Like most malls that have all types of food for sale like Hotdogs, Pizza , Hamburgers, Fish, Chicken, and all sorts of types of foods, it also has a mini type amusement park midway. It has a mini rollercoaster, ferris wheel & merry go round or carousel. It also has a very special sign on it for an amusement park that used to exist when I was a kid & a preteen & an early teenager in the fifties sixties & seventies. When I saw that sign for the first time touring that mall, I got a special kind of shock. The Sign was for the old Palisades Amusement Park that I went to several times during my childhood. Even though the monorail ride didn't exist when the amusement park was open, it was mentioned on the sign to a sort of up to date the amusement park environment today. The Mall put up those signs as a remembrance for the publicity that park did for children who were very young, for preteens, teenagers, & even after teens & some adults. The sign was also put up there for a publicity sign to go along with the modern Rides at the Food Court of the Palisades Center Mall.

Palisades Amusement Park was located in a small hamlet area called Palisade New Jersey just 2 miles south of The George Washington Bridge to New York City. The little tiny hamlet of Palisade New Jersey was just at the south tip of Fort Lee New Jersey & just north of Cliffside Park New Jersey. As you drive from Uptown to Downtown on the West Side Highway during the fifties sixties or early seventies you see a great view of that famous amusement park right across the Hudson River. That amusement park was so famous in many different kinds of ways. Lots of childrens weekend groups went there & there were field trips there from schools. Day Camps & Sleepaway Camps in the summer went to that amusement park a lot. Sometimes there were special coupons for it like at banks if you make a deposit of 500 bucks or more or at convenient stores for buying 20 bucks or more of food & other things. Super Markets like A & P or Grand Union or Bohack or Food Fair that existed in the fifties or sixties gave free ride tickets of many rides for buying at least 20 bucks of groceries or for every 20 bucks spent its one or two free rides tickets. Sometimes the Sunday New York Times or other regular or underground newspapers would have coupons for free rides after buying tickets for 5 or more or 10 or more. Some magazines including my favorite TV Guide also had ride coupons in it. In my nostalgic late sixties comic books that I have read they had Palisades Amusement Park coupons in it too like in the old Harvey Casper comics they had a ticket to a ride I was on called Caspers Ghostland. That ride was a haunted type of ride with all sorts of ghosts & witches & goblins popping up & anything else Spooky. Back then there was no pay one price admission like amusement parks today. You had to buy tickets for each ride you go on. All tickets were like 10 cents or 5 cents a ride then. There were ticket books of something like 5 bucks for 25 rides. Plus it had all types of food & concession stands. I have been to that park about 4 times in my young life. I have been on rides like the roller coaster, ferris wheel, merry go round, fun house & many others. I have also been on types of train rides. There was one other famous romantic ride called The Tunnel of Love. That's a ride mostly teens after teens & adults ride on to have a romantic time while it is dark. That ride was mentioned in a song that a singing group called The Beach Boys wrote. Also in a commercial both on radio & on TV there was this song called Palisades has the Ride Palisades has the Fun Come On Over. While that song was sang on TV they were showing scenes of what Palisades Amusement Park looked like. When TV viewers or radio listeners, mostly children & preteens were listening to it, it got kids & some adults to come over to that amusement park to have a great time.

In Fall of 1971 when I heard the news two years after my final trip to Palisades Amusement Park I got very shocked & upset. I was told on radio & in newspapers that end of fall of 1971 the park was getting torn down to build new condos & office buildings. No one knows why but its one of those things that have happened. However I still got to got to more amusement park favorites of mine. When I went to summer camp in the early seventies when I was a teen I have been to Nay Aug Park in Scranton Pennsyvania near a camp I went to in Waymart a small town near Carbondale as well as a camp I went to near Honesdale Pennsyvania. I have also been to the Wayne County Fair & a Ghost Town Amusement Park. Later on in a town about 100 miles south of New York City in Jackson New Jersey, a new park took the place of Palisades Amusement Park called Six Flags Great Adventure. I went there several times from the first time my brother took me in the late seventies to today. I went there once on my own by bus & with groups. It had just as much publicity as Palisades Amusement Park did. After that in the state I presently live in, in CT I have been to Riverside Amusement Park, Lake Quasapaug & Lake Compounce. My most favorites of all were Disneyland which I have been to twice & Walt Disney World which I have been to three times. During my two summers that I went to Atlantic City & Wildwood I went to a small indoor amusement park known as The Tivoli of Atlantic City. I also went to two different amusement parks on the amusement boardwalk in Wildwood New Jersey. When I took a Southeast Motorcoach trip I went to an indoor amusement park called World of Sid & Marty Kroft. On my San Francisco Reno Trip I once took I went to an amusement park called Marriots Amusement Park. Besides Disneyworld, one of my most recent Amusement Parks I went to on a Hershey Pennsylvania trip was Hershey Park. All those amusement parks had many enjoyable rides that I have liked for a long time.

That’s my Page on Amusement Parks & Jughead Amusement Park History, if you have any comments please Email Me.

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