White City at Lake Quinsigamond, c. 1950
I miss having a smaller amusement park nearby for an evening out. I vaguely remember Whalom Park as a kid before it closed.
Holy cow never knew that was an amusement park!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_City_(Shrewsbury,_Massachusetts)
If your fly was unzipped you were often cautioned with the phrase “White City is open”.
In those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ’em. “Gimme five bees for a quarter,” you’d say.
According to the GPS coordinates on Wikipedia yes.
Also, “After the park closed, the White City Plaza shopping center was built on part of the 18-acre (73,000 m2) site.”
That was the northwest corner of the park. Jimmy’s occupies the spot where after White City closed a movie theater was built and operated for a few decades.
I’m giving way my age by saying this but I remember White City, it closed when I was six. My memories are through the eyes and all of the senses of a child. To begin with was the constant din of people enjoying themselves. Although only the background of those memories it remains vivid as does the smell of hot dogs, burgers, fries, fried dough, popcorn and cotton candy. The park had all the requisite rides and and a midway lined with concessions and game booths. As a child I was relegated to tame kiddie rides but I remember sitting with my dad’s arm around me on some of the bigger rides. In the 1950s public safety was not what it is today, a child accompanied by an adult was allowed on most rides. There was a fun house that for some reason was frightening to me but it was much cooler inside and a refuge on hot summer days. As I wrote this I realized that these descriptions could have applied to any 1950s amusement parks but as each had some distinct feature (White City’s Lights were something to behold.) each provided distinct memories. My favorite memory was sitting on a blanket on the beach in the picture and watching fireworks on the fourth of July. These memories are also connected to simpler times when America was enjoying a booming post war economy and unaffected by poisonous politics.
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