Ever think Revere Beach is a whole diffferent world?

The nearest Giganto Park is on the other side of the state. You load up the car, drive 100 miles to Agawam, pay nearly 20 bucks for the privilege of parking, pay more for admission, then spend all day in long lines dodging groups of unrepentant linejumpers and basketball bouncers. And then there's a two hour drive home!

I love roller coasters and amusement parks, but I won't go to Six Flags anymore because it costs too much and you often leave just exhausted and disappointed. This is a shame, because it's the last amusement park left in Massachusetts and the Superman roller coaster is a real kick. (And it looks like people agree and aren't attending in droves; Six Flags is feeling the economic slug and is flirting with bankruptcy. Who knows what will become of the former Riverside Park in the next year or so?)

Closer to home there's Canobie Lake up in Salem, and while it may be small, it's usually a lot more fun and not as expensive. It's swell, but it's still an hour away by car. Time was there were two seaside amusement areas close to Boston. Revere Beach was the most accessible, but there was also Paragon Park on Nantasket Beach (and if you wanted a day trip, you could either go out to Whalom Park off Rt. 2 or down to Lincoln Park between Fall River and New Bedford.) Now they're all gone, gone, gone.

Time and the economy may have a big say in this. That doesn't mean fogeys don't have the right to sit back and say "That's not fair." Even good old Coney Island is getting the shaft by condo-loving developers who bought out Astroland Park and have gutted it. And yet, if ever there was a time for reasonably cheap public entertainment, it's now. But it just ain't feasible, it wouldn't be that cheap and overall that just ain't fair.

If I had a lawn I'd start telling them kids to get off it.