A Bar'l of Fun no more

[Inspectorjoe]

Did anybody see the season premiere of the History Channel's American Pickers two weeks ago? Mike and Frank paid a visit to a place that was the genesis of so many of my happy childhood memories.

Bushkill Park began life as a trolley park, built by the Northampton Traction Company in 1902. It was severely damaged by several floods in the last years of its operation. The last day it was open was Labor Day, 2006.

I've had some videos on Youtube that I taped in the late 80's. After the show aired, there was a lot of fresh interest in them. I just uploaded a new one of the funhouse, known as the Bar'l of Fun. It's the oldest funhouse in America, and at the time of its closing, was the only funhouse that still had an operating barrel. It's a really cool old building. I can close my eyes and still smell it.

It sounds strange, but I can remember the unique smells that each of several different rides had, among them, the Whip, the Haunted Pretzel and the bumper cars (1940's Lusse Scooters). It would be a dream come true to experience them again, and also let my grandkids store away some memories too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Bushkill_Park

[utube]

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[Rob Amaral]

I saw that Joe... great show..

[mgbinspect]

I love that show, but missed that episode. I believe it was last week when they rolled up on a property where most of the stuff was originally the guy's deceased father's collection, and the son was definitely in a selling mood. Much of the stuff even the son knew of but had not beheld for a long time - an equally cool episode. IF memory serves, there was a particularly rare car in one of the sheds that only had a few original miles on it - amazing. Can I get a job like that?