Re: The Last Night at Playland

10/25/09 - posted by Leif Hatlen

In the anthology My California:Journeys by Great Writers (edited by Donna Wares) there is a wonderful descriptive story about Playland and the Fun House by devorah major (yes she uses lower case) called Cotton Candy Mirrors. The time she writes about must be in the 1950s? and begins with a ride on the No. 5 McAllister bus to Playland. She describes the attractions of Playland: "one puny roller coaster", "octupus ride that whirrled and arched, but never very quickly", and "the almost always old, and usually only, women,...playin Fascination for hours". Then she writes, "...the Fun House, the Fun House alone, was reason to make the long cross city trip." And her description of the Fun House was just as I remember it: the maze of mirrors as you entered, the floor with the air-holes, the silver disc that spun around, the barrel ride, and then, what was to me as a 6 or 7 year old, the most terrifying-the long wooden slide. This story really brought back memories.
By the way, the other stories in the book are wonderful also and the profits do support a good cause: the California Arts Council.