Appointment in Coney

See this? That's the old Parachute Jump in Coney Island, NY. I actually had the horrifying pleasure of taking a spin on it in the fall of 1958. You sat on a flat wooden bench, barely buckled in, and it hauled you up to an impressive height (somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 feet) and dropped you. You were in free-fall for at least 50-feet before the parachute opened and slowed your descent. Nonetheless you descended VERY rapidly and bounced dramatically to a halt. Your heart, your lungs and your brains were left up there near the top.

It stopped running in about 1968 and over the years fell into disrepair. It probably should have been torn down as a safety hazard but somehow it survived and was declared a landmark in the mid-70's, but repairing it was impossible in those bad economic times, so there it stood amid the shambles that was Coney Island for another 30 years; a beautiful derelict on the beach.

Here's the good news; it's opening again; not as a terrifying ride but as, literally, a work-of-art. It will be jazzily lit every night in themed-to-the-season colors, starting with "vibrant reds and hot pinks" for the summer, starting next week, July 7, 2006 at 9:00 p.m. After that it will be dusk-to-midnight and, personally, I think it's all so cool I can hardly stand it.