My Dad William (Bill Alvarez) worked at the Boardwalk for many, many years as a second job. He and Claude worked on the Merry Go Round. One day when my sister and I were finally old enough to go on the Giant Dipper, he and his friend took us. Each adult rode with one of us girls. They had just replaced the brakes on the ride and the ride operators couldn’t get it moving so Dad and Mike jumped out and began to push along with the ride operators. I said, “Dad what if you can’t jump back in.” He said, “don’t worry that won’t happen.” Well it did. It started to move and they could not jump back in. So off it went with my sister and I by ourselves in separate seats. I don’t ever remember being so scared except during the next mishap. We came back into the station (fast) and we were supposed to stop but they could not stop it and so it went through the tunnel and around a SECOND time. I’ll never forget the look on my Dad’s face as we came around again and didn’t stop… it’s a memory I’ll never forget. As a child of a long-term Boardwalk employee, I have very fond memories of many a day at the Boardwalk. As an employee he would get periodic free tickets and we had a BLAST!
Voted the World’s Best Seaside Park
