Coney Island. We got off the subway and there sat Nathan's, with an oversized billboard counting down to this year's 4th of July hot dog eating contest, and photos of past winners, including Takeru Kobayashi, the Japanese competitive eater who held the hot dog eating record for 6 years! (53.75 in 12 minutes! Bet his parents are so proud!) We wandered to the last of the amusement parks, Astroland, and headed straight for the Wonder Wheel, where I was able to finally check "Ride a ferris wheel" off my Life's To-Do list. I debated getting a funnel cake to munch on while we walked the pier, but decided against it, and we headed to the sand to catch some rays.
I'm gonna be honest. Coney Island is a bit lackluster, but it isn't the rides, and def not the beach that attracts people here every summer. It's the history. Granted, I am the biggest nerd at heart, but all I could do was imagine Coney Island at its prime, with all the glitz and glamour of the early 20th century, when it was THE place to be. Lights flashing, amusement parks lining the shore; ferris wheels turning, rollercoasters and other rides doing the unthinkable. I could see the women in their dainty little bathing suits with bottoms so high that they might as well have been a one piece. And all I wanted was a barber shop quartet to walk by in their pinstripes and straw hats and sing "Goodbye, My Coney Island Baby."
But that's probably just me romanticizing the era.
