The "Say It Ain't So! Story

It was an ordinary day.  Opened my paper to the "Nation" section and there, right in front of me, was the headline the read..."Shore amusement site to close!"  It's the end of an era on the Ocean City, New Yesey boardwalk.  Gillian's Wonderland Pier, the locally renowned amusement park is closing after 94 years - though patrons with tickets still have a few weeks to hop on the Giant Wheel before the space closes.  I remember riding on the many rides as a child back in the 1940s, as a parent riding with my children in the 1970s and just a few years ago in the 2000s with my grandchildren.  How can they even think of closing the place?  Well, the story in the newspaper tells me I have a few weeks to hop on the Giant Wheel before the space closes.  In a letter published on social media and posted on the wooden ticket booths throughout the pier, Jay Gillian, the current operator of the facility, said he was embarking. on a new chapter in his life as the amusement park was "no longer a viable business."  The note said 6th Street pizza and Grill would also be shuttering its doors.  Gillian said the amusement park and 6th Street Pizza will be open through Indian summer weekend, which typically is in October.  "It's been my life, my legacy and family," he said.  "It' sad to let go.'  Yet sustaining the park was no longer possible through "increasing difficult challenges." He did not elaborate.  Gillian, the Ocean City mayor and only the latest to take the reins of the multigeneration family-run operation, said in his note that he first started working at the park when he was 13 years old.  The amusement park had run into trouble in recent years, making headlines in 2021 when Gillian defaulted on $8 million in loans.

At the Wonderland Pier under wind, gray changeable skies, families lined up as usual Friday for the iconic rides, from the caterpillar roller coaster to the giant Ferris wheel to the little fire engines with the bells for the toddlers.  Parents said they were left wistful by the news.  Many had been coming since they were kids, and despaired at not being able to continue the tradition with their own young children.  Ken, Jen, and son Aaron Lucas, 7, of Chalfont, Bucks County, were outside the funhouse mirrors on Friday.  It's their third time there this week, Jen said.  Like so many, the Lucases have indelible, joyful, and very specific memories of the iconic rides at Gillian's.  "My mother, myself and Aaron rode the Tilt-a-Whirl twice," Jen said. "We laughed like hyenas!  My husband said he always knew when we were coming around because he could hear us laughing."  Businesses on the boardwalk worried about their future, specifically what the next summer season would look like. Gillian said he would be ending his multiyear lease and because the property is not his, he can't speak to its future.  Jody Levchuk, whose business JiLLy'sArcade has been on the boardwalk since 1976, said the modern Ocean City boardwalk has had two competing and complementary amusement parks for as long as he can remember.  Already, many business owners are wondering what the loss of one could mean for foot traffic for neighbors who enjoy business from families headed to Gillian's.  "It's scary what next summer looks like over there because unless there's just not enough time to make proper use of that property," he said.  Council member Keith Hartzell, who challenged Gillian for mayor and warned that the Pier might be replaced by hotel construction, called it "a sad day for Ocean City."  He worried that the end of the boardwalk would suffer from the loss of the iconic draw.  "Ocean City hates change," he said.  "This is a devastating blow of change."  As for my wife and I...I most certainly will miss it, but I am past the age when I will miss the rides and the atmosphere of the pier.  What I will miss the most is the chance for my grandchildren and their children and so on to have the same chance to feel their stomach drop as they head down the slopes of the rollercoasters and the thrill of riding about the city on the Ferris wheel.  I will never forget those experiences!!  So sad to have to say goodbye!  And, as is said so many times...Say It Ain't So!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.