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Kennywood plans to get ethnic
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"In Her Dreams" Image by Mark Yarris, R.L.A.
As a youth, Kennywood Park was a magical place for summertime fun, even if it was for only a day. I loved the park’s landscaping, the lagoon, sounds of the rides, seeing the excitement in the eyes of others, hearing the screams of joy and eating those fresh potato patch fries! But the things I remembered and loved the most as a kid about Kennywood were the rides you could “drive”. Rides like the real Pony Ride, Turnpike, Grand Prix bumper cars and Auto Race. (Even at a young age I had an itchin’ to drive.) In my older years my favorite rides changed to those great old wood roller coasters. Maybe I’m a rollercoaster purest, but the steel coasters just don’t have that feel you get with the wooden ones. They’re just too darn smooth of a ride. To me, you just can’t beat the Jackrabbit, Racers and Thunderbolt, and the Thunderbolt was the ride for me, hands down. But to this day there is one thing you will never ever get me on at Kennywood… anything that goes round and round. You can leave it up to your imagination as to why.
Another thing that sticks in my memory about Kennywood is the community and nationality days. Those days really brought the crowds into the park. They were fun times for sure. It was a time to bring like-background, sometimes crazy, people together to enjoy the day as a unit. The Kennywood picnic areas were usually filled to capacity and you could smell the hot dogs burning on the grill. It was a full day where the very young cried from fatigue as they were dragged through Kiddieland and the very old sat on the benches around the lagoon chatting to one another while watching the more nimble body people buzz around them as they raced from ride to ride. Those special days had that air of excitement, fellowship and camaraderie. Everything at the park seemed to be focused on that group for that day.
Growing up my grandfather would tell me that America was a melting pot of many people from many nations and that the Pittsburgh region’s steel and coal industry was a big drawing card for many European’s a century or so ago. My grandfather, brought to the United States by ship as a newborn baby, was proud of his heritage but, like many other immigrants, wanted to be known as and called an American. Today there seems to be a shift where people who are second, third or fourth generation American want their background and heritage to be known. For example there are African-Americans, Latino-Americas, Cuban-Americans, Native-Americans and the list goes on and on.
Celebrating the Pittsburgh region’s melting pot of European decedents has been an ongoing tradition year after year at Kennywood and this year will be no different. The nationality or Ethnic Days, as they are called, are scheduled at the park from now until September 5, 2009. Unfortunately, the Carpatho-Russian and Irish Days have passed, but you can still catch the remaining ones and they are as follows:
Slovak Day… Thursday, July 16
Serbian Day… Friday, July 17
Italian Day… Tuesday, July 21
Byzantine Day… Thursday, July 23
Slovene Day… Monday, July 27
Greek Day… Tuesday, July 28
Polish Day… Tuesday, August 4
Hungarian Day… Wednesday, August 5
Jewish Day… Sunday, August 30
Scottish Day… Friday, August 21
Croatian Day… Saturday, September 5
So, take a day, get ethnic, and get out and about to Kennywood… just don’t ride anything that goes around and around.
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