I'm 70, was born across the Bay in Oakland, and misspent a lot of my youth at Playland at the Beach between 1946 and 1958. For me, the best rides were the Big Dipper and the Chute the Chutes. The Dipper was a multi-sensory experience before you even got on it. You could see it all the way across the park -- a jumble of not- partly- and fully-painted green track and shiny rails. As you approached, you heard it -- shrieks from the riders, clacks from the cars, the brringgg! of the warning bell as another car left the platform. Then you smelled it -- pine and creosote. Then you felt the ground shake as the cars plummeted and careened. When you did get on, it was scarier than most of the new coasters I've ridden on, not because of the steepness or speed but because it absolutely felt out-of-control, the whole structure shaking, the curves brutally sharp so that you thought you would fly off. If you know the coaster at Santa Cruz today, it was like that only considerably more so. I know now that the Chute-the-Chutes was a pretty standard sluice ride, but we didn't know that then -- the three seconds or so down into the pool at the end were pure magic.
The park also had a great Merry-Go-Round, a Tilt-A-Whirl, an Octopus, and a Caterpillar, a Diving Bell, and a Fun House with a great mirror maze and a very long indoor slide. There was also a Crazy House that was built so that it appeared that gravity had been suspended. Balls rolled uphill, you seemed to be walking down rather than up, etc. There were two rides that took you on a tiny indoor railroad past black-lit scary things -- very good for getting to know young ladies better. As for food, somebody else mentioned the It's-It, I'll mention the enchiladas and tamales.
One last memory. In 1966, my new bride and I moved into an apartment at 47th and Sutro Heights, on a bluff overlooking the ocean and Playland. By that time, the park was in advanced decline, the Chutes and Dipper were gone, but at night the romance was still there. Even from our apartment we heard the Merry-Go-Round's organ and saw the lights. We'd walk down the hill, ride the carousel and get a candy apple, all for less than $2.
