| rev:text
| - Kennywood is expensive but it is a Pittsburgh icon.
Kennywood has always been a hot spot for teenagers to scope out members of the opposite sex. When my grandmother was a teen, she rode the streetcar down to Kennywood on Sundays with her friends. They would go to "The Clamshell" and hear Big Bands play and swing dance with the boys. Many romances budded near that clamshell.
If you watch Rick Sebak's narrated PBS special about Kennywood, you will hear ladies talk about going behind the picnic groves to "neck".
When I was a 9th grader, we had an annual school picnic. That meant sno school and everyone you knew went to Kennywood. We got an all day riding pass for about $13 and wore the plastic bracelet looped tight around our wrists. We rode the bus and our parents met us at Kennywood later. My Dad would give me a 20 before he left for work in the morning and said "I'll meet you at the Racers at 6pm. Be good" I was at the Racers at 5:55 pm because that $20 was long gone and I was hungry. I was with two classmates. I said "hm.. Dad is always early. I don't see them." We looked around and then my friend Jennifer started laughing and pointed to two people making out on a park bench. Yes, my parents were making out on a park bench in front of the Racers. Geez. Talk about embarassing. Dad gave me $40 so I didn't have to see them again until the park closed. Of course I saw them holding hands waiting in line for the Thunderbolt later but it wasn't nearly as mortifying.
Kennywood is such an icon it has spawned phrases we use in every day language around the "Burgh.
Kennywood is open means your fly is open.
Kennywood outfits means you dressed the same as somebody else. We used to do that on purpose at the school picnics. You would go shopping a week or two before and pick out something really fashionable and dress like twins.
The merry go round is one of the oldest in the country and still has the wonderful organ type music. The wooden roller coasters are still amazing. It is not the most state of the art amusement park but in Pittsburgh its what we have and we go and create new memories.
Yes it is pricey. I can remember when I was in elementary school, you had to pay a dime, and turn a knob like on a gumball machine to open a bathroom stall. When you were done, you would hold it open to see if anyone else needed to go right after you and save a dime. While you no longer have to pay to pee, you do have to pay a lot for everything else.
However............picnic baskets are allowed in the park as well as wagons and strollers. Yes you read that correctly. You do not need to buy the overpriced food. You can still take a picnic basket in and save some money at lunch time. There is still a picnic grove full of picnic tables in covered pavilions. When I was in grade school, this is what we did. Mother took us to the restroom and to wash our hands while Dad walked to the car for the Coleman cooler.
Proof on the picnic baskets can be found here: http://www.kennywood.com/plan/plan.php
They also have a first aid station with a nurse in the center of the park for things like ice packs when you get a black eye. There used to be a bobsled ride that went in a fast circle. Yeah, I got a black eye smacking my face off the metal protection bar as it came down on my lap. I was in third grade and had quite the story when I went back to school the next day.
I give it five stars for good memories, family bonding, and the wooden rollercoasters.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)