Nostalgia For Sale

I finally gave in this year and bought myself this Christmas present. No, not the Coney Island Parachute Jump, but this photograph of it. The photo has been tickling my fancy for years, but I discovered it’s a waste of time hoping the price would go down anytime soon. It’s from the Brooklyn Public Library Collection and is titled “Close-up of Parachute Jump with Riders at Steeplechase Park, Coney Island – Circa 1946.” It is a blast from the past, but more than that it’s a souvenir of what Coney Island once was; even in my lifetime. It’s even more poignant in that, even as we speak, the last remnants of Astroland are slowly but surely being hauled off and put in storage; leaving behind only the rickety skeletons. The Cyclone will survive for a while, as will the Wonder Wheel; but it’s really the Parachute Jump that gives Coney its visual pizzazz. I'm hauling it off to the framer tomorrow (the photo, not the parachute jump) and will probably pay more for the matting/framing than the cost of the photo. Thereafter it will hang on the wall in my bedroom; hopefully pleasing my eyeballs for some time to come.