Palace Amusement Adventure!

The building was slated for demolition. It’s green paint was peeling off, and the neon tubing had long since been broke. Ferris Wheel, Merry Go Round, Roller Coaster Fun House, Tunnel of Love, and Bumper Cars, were all advertised in big red letters on the exterior. The building had fallen into disrepair in the ten years after the closing of Palace Amusements; it just so happened that the door was open.

I was in Asbury Park, NJ for a daylong concert with tow of my friends. Coming back from lunch we decided to walk by the Palace Amusements building; I was always fascinated with the place because of the hordes of people it must have attracted when Asbury Park was in its glory. Local sources had it that a few weeks before hand, a portion of the second story floor caved in, prompting the city to condemn the building and order it’s demolition in the hands of the owner. I was inquisitively looking around when I came upon a door that was slightly ajar. To my amazement, it opened at y nudge. “Come here, come here, come here, the door’s open!” I told my friends, as I made them get inside quickly. Once inside, I was bewildered. The building which took up half the block, was decrepit and desolate; only gutted long ago. I made my way across the creaking wooden floor, not stepping too heavily in any one spot until I felt comfortable. It took my friends a few minutes to warm up to the idea of looking around, but soon enough all three of us were exploring for ourselves. First I ventured to where the bumper cars had been. While the cars were gone and part of the ceiling had fallen on the track, the gates were still there. I imagined how young kids would line up in eager anticipation of getting to a car and recklessly driving around the rectangular circuit. The only vestige of the merry-go-round was the circular path of dirt upon which it had sat. it was a far cry from the way it appeared in Bruce Springsteen’s video, “Tunnel of Love.” Against the far wall of the building were the remnants of the tunnel of love. A huge gorilla’s mouth was the start of the ride with the metal track careening into dark corridors that I wouldn’t dare explore. In the middle of the floor lay a long ceiling-less plot of land, overrun with small trees and grass. This was once where the Ferris wheel sat; it’s outstretched hands taking anymore with a ticket high above the ground, beyond the roof, and into the Asbury Park skyline.

The most spectacular attraction still there was the fun house. It was left completely intact, the only factor in it’s degradation was that of Mother Nature. As I walked along the planks before the steps of the fun house, one of them broke. My heart dropped to my stomach as my foot fell through the rotting wood. Luckily I was able to withstand the three-inch drop and make my way to the top fo the fun house. From there, a small passageway led into the dark unknown of the fun house. I courageously ventured five feet ahead until my common sense caught up with me. Considering it was the second floor that partially collapsed, and myself weighing in at a good two hundred and thirty pound, I decided not to press my luck and I returned downstairs. Before I could get anywhere else, my friend yelled for me to come an check out a place he had found. I followed him to a small room where there were sets of mailboxes and key rings. I went into the adjacent room and tried to make my way in the darkness. Through the escaping light, I saw what looked to be a safe. I put out my hands and sure enough, I felt a large and rusty safe with its door open. I could only imagine what would be inside and realized that I could use my key ring flashlight to illuminate the darkness. Shortly after my revelation, I found the safe to be empty. As I panned my key ring light around the room, flashes of silver were reflected from the entire far corner of the room. I soon found thousands and thousands of tokens along with boxes of unused tickets strewn upon the floor. Both my friends and I spontaneously decided to stuff our pockets with tokens and grab some bricks of tickets. We also found two rolls of Palace Amusement stickers, which we stuffed into a backpack.

By this time we had been in the building for about a half an hour and seen mostly everything. With policemen patrolling the area heavily and the concert still going on, we decided to head out. As I got to the door from which we had entered, I actually realized how meaningful the experience was to me. Looking at the empty building one last time I felt contented. I was lucky to be able to experience what I had always been so curious about. Before I knew it I was back onto the sidewalk, without anyone seeing us. I was ecstatic; we had gotten away with it and even had loot to prove it. A policeman casually drove by and for the fifteen seconds until he was out of sight, my heart was racing. Though nothing came of it, we continued back to my car to deposit the “loot” in my trunk. My day in Asbury Park was certainly an adventure I will never forget. The thrill of being in the Palace Amusements building was a dream come true for me. The building itself is a testament to life. One hundred and ten years ago, it was just a warehouse, then it blossomed into a magnificent place for kids of all ages to go for fun, and soon enough it will be a barren lot. My true adventure was being able to prolongate the “life” of Palace Amusements. When it was closed in 1987, no one ever intended it to make people happy again nor for people to enjoy themselves inside. For the half-hour that my friends and I were inside, it’s fate was repealed and It was able to bring happiness and excitement to three more faces.