Welcome Back to Euclid Beach Park

 Reprint of an article that appeared in E.B.P.N.  . . NEWS predecessor of The Arch, Euclid Beach Park Now’s quarterly newsletter: Issue 2, February 1990. Authored by Robert Callaghan.

My memories start some 60 years ago, (about 1929 I think) when I, with my parents, moved there in the spring of the year. My dad got a job as a chauffeur for D.S. and Effie Humphrey, (the older Humphreys) and along with the job a house was provided in the park.

We moved in next door to a house that contained three kids – one boy, David, about 4, and two girls, Marion 10 and Carol 8 years. I was 8 at the time. Their last name was Scott. As all kids do, we were soon getting along together.

I made the discovery that it was possible to get on the rides FREE! Only on slow days of course, if you showed a blue ticket and explained to the man that your dad worked for the Humphrey Co. And thus the summer of 1929 flew past. Oh wonderful summer! After the park closed in the fall it immediately became OUR domain. We thought so anyway. There was no place that could be reached by foot or on bikes that we did not explore. EUCLID BEACH, while closed, was a paradise just made for kids on bikes. No pedestrian or automobile traffic go in our way as we flew from one end to the other. East, West, North and South. RED BUG BOULEVARD was much more fun to bike on than to drive the electric cars. The MILL CHUTE, when drained, made an excellent dark, mysterious passage for we bikers to travel through. Even the FLYING TURNS was not spared our excursions and Dave and I spent may happy hours rolling around the barrels on wagons and even on roller skates, with a broom between our legs to act as a brake! There was no limit to our ingenuity.

You must understand that our goings on were viewed benignly by our common enemy – The Adults – so we were to gain a certain craft and skill to accomplish our ends, which were . . . TO HAVE FUN!

The LAFF IN THE DARK was another spooky place just made for exploring. DARK was its name and dark it was, and we never had flashlights. Dave was more familiar with the interior than I was so he was the leader, and we would bump and stumble around in this eerie place, whispering to each other, and trying to get back to the exit door that some Adult had foolishly left unlocked.

At night during the Winter months, EUCLID BEACH would have been an ideal site for a Hitchcock movie. With the Dance Hall looming large and castle like with it’s towers pushing up into the windy sky. With a few naked lights bulbs blinking here and there and pushing back the shadows for the night watchman while he did his lonely rounds. Boy, I did envy him his job!

As the years went by and we kids grew up, as kids will, our sorties into our playground grew less and less frequent. With the coming of World War II, we all, Marion, Carol, Dave and I went our separate ways to make our way in this world. It was kind of sad in a way that those times had to end but that’s what comes of growing up. Remember the words to the song “Puff the Magic Dragon”? Well it was sort of like that.