Whalom Park in Lunenburg, Massachusetts existed from 1893 to 2000. My memories extend back to the early 1970's, when it was modern enough to fit in with any midway style carnival attraction one might find at fairs and festivals today.

Unlike modern amusement parks, Whalom was an actual park. It was designed with walking gardens and wooded paths. When I went as a child, we brought our own supplies for lunch. Several families would set up together around a few picnic tables.

While many rides were more current, several were throwbacks to an earlier age. The giant slide, for example, was quite high and quick but not very scary. The burlap sacks we sat on for the ride down could have provoked more concern.

The fun-house maintained its quaint features. It had a series of rooms through which one had to maneuver as the floor boards shifted, jittered, and wobbled. The barrel of fun, a large wooden tube that rotated, could be sped up or slowed by the ride operator, giving it a bit of thrust to send one tumbling and laughing.

There were many flying rides like the chairs on chain swings that spun around. Slow rides like the gas engine cars that putted around a steel track. The longest line was for the Flyer Comet.

The roller coaster extended around a third of the park and was made of wood. Just looking at the structure made me wonder about its safety. Below it, you could hear the timbers shake and groan as the cars whipped along the tracks. And riding it was even more thrilling.

This was an old style roller coaster. If there was a safety bar it definitely wasn't padded (my recollection was of a simple lap belt). The chain drive pulled the line of cars up the steep slope with a terrifying clacking of metal on metal. The ride down would be deemed boring by today's standards, but back then I felt sure the rickety contraption would collapse at any moment.

Besides the rides there was popcorn and cotton candy, roving clowns and animal characters, games of chance and music and lights as the sun dipped below the horizon. They don't make fun parks like that anymore.