Many saved beloved park

Fond memories, fresh start for Rocky Pt.

John Howell
Posted 10/28/14

Heidi Jordan returned to Rocky Point Saturday, and so did an estimated 15,000 more people.

Janet Coit, director of the Department of Environmental Management, and Jordan connected at the …

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Many saved beloved park

Fond memories, fresh start for Rocky Pt.

Posted

Heidi Jordan returned to Rocky Point Saturday, and so did an estimated 15,000 more people.

Janet Coit, director of the Department of Environmental Management, and Jordan connected at the department’s display tent, just as police started announcing the park would close at 4 p.m. After the wind and rain of Thursday and Friday, it was a perfect fall day for a fresh start at the point that holds wonderful memories for so many.

“You’ve got to hear this,” said Coit, who spent the day walking the newly open spaces of state land and talking with complete strangers. Everybody had a story about Rocky Point.

“If only she had been here yesterday, she could have said ‘Rocky Point is open again,’” she said of Jordan.

On Friday, about 100 people gathered under a tent to hear talk of the long road to preserving the land for public use after the amusement park filed for bankruptcy in 1995 and attempts were made to bring it back as the Rocky Point Family Fair.

Jordan was one of about 25 people who worked at the park during the brief period when an outside company leased the property and tried to sustain some of the rides. She and her co-workers knew that the effort wasn’t working and that the amusement park would close, never to reopen.

Among her jobs, Jordan operated the park’s loudspeaker system. She was the one to announce “the park will now be closing” for the last time in August 1997. The Jordan family continued to have connections with the park. Her father, Jim, plowed the park after it closed to have roads open in the event of a fire. Jordan was able to buy a variety of items from the park as keepsakes.

And keepsakes from the park were in demand Saturday. About 230 soup bowls, plates and cups (salvaged from the Shore Dinner Hall and the Palladium before the buildings were leveled and cleaned by the kitchen crew at the Pilgrim Senior Center) were sold by the Rocky Point Foundation. The plates, at $10, were gone within 90 minutes of opening at 10 a.m. More of the plates will be available and will be posted on the Rocky Point Facebook page and foundation website. Funds raised will be used for the benefit of the park.

Saturday was a day for casual strolling, and it soon extended across the freshly planted greenway that had once been the midway. Many brought dogs, some pushed strollers, while others rode bikes and even their wheelchairs.

Richard Maresca and his family were among the strollers. He pointed out where the Corkscrew stood, the site of the Windjammer, the Carousel and the House of Horrors.

“There could be signs,” he suggested, “maybe boulders with plaques on them.”

For others, just being back was enough to evoke the memories.

Henry and Loraine Lozier were among the first to arrive. They remember their first date at the park in 1958 and, in fact, Loraine still has the prize Henry won, a ceramic ashtray. The couple visits at least once a month to walk the trail on the 41 acres the city acquired with help from state and federal grants in 2007.

Delores Clements and her daughter, Mary Beth DiSanto, and her husband, Carl, were dressed for the occasion. Clements said her children worked at the park, and it wasn’t uncommon for them to get calls, even while they were in college, to help.

Mary Beth remembers long hours at the Shore Dinner Hall that started at 10 a.m. and sometimes didn’t end until 8 or 9 that night. She remembers pulling the hot tarps off the bed of seaweed where the clams were steamed and serving up the “full” dinner of corn, lobster, sausage, potatoes and watermelon and Indian pudding. And she remembers being nervous while waiting on park manager Conrad Ferla, although “he would leave you a good tip.”

Retired State Adjutant General Reginald Centracchio served as master of ceremonies in a brief opening ceremony and recalled how his father salvaged lumber from what had been the roller coaster after the ride was brought down by the hurricane of ’38 and used it to build homes in West Warwick. He recalled, too, how he had taken a particularly attractive young lady to the park for a date.

“She got sick to her stomach and I never saw her again,” he related.

Ward 4 Councilman Joseph Solomon marveled at the turnout and how people of all ages flocked to the event.

“I think this is one of the state’s crown jewels,” he said. “It is a wonder that it is going to be preserved for the future.”

Mayor Scott Avedisian delighted in “all the happy faces” and said preserving the park had been a “long, long time coming…there are lots of hands that got us to where we are.”

Sen. William Walaska likewise spoke of the coalition of people that put the purchase of the park on the 2010 ballot and thanked the voters who made it possible. Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur said the event was a day filled with memories and visions for the future.

Throughout the day, there was a steady stream of cars, often bringing traffic to a crawl on Warwick Neck Avenue. Some people parked on Palmer Avenue, although that really wasn’t necessary. DEM and city works crews had it under control with a system that smoothly rotated vehicles in and out of the park.

“I wish I had thought to bring a clicker,” said Felicia Celeberto of DEM, who was directing traffic.

She estimated 5,000, maybe as many as 7,000 cars. With an average ridership of 3.2 people, she projected the crowd at about 20,000.

Coit was thrilled with the turnout and tapped her feet to the music provided by the Night Life Orchestra after welcoming remarks. She advised, “Dance, sing, eat…and enjoy Rocky Point.”

Access to the park will remain limited until the cleanup of Rocky Beach is completed in about two weeks, at which time the city will remove the chain link fence separating the two parcels. For the foreseeable future, motor vehicle access will be restricted to controlled openings from the park’s former exit on Palmer Avenue.

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