A Pronto Pup for the Road!

As a child growing up in the mountains of West Virginia we used our imaginations and spent endless hours playing outside, exploring the woods and creeks near our homes; however on one special Saturday every year near the end of summer we spent a full day at the most magical place on earth, Camden Park. Every year hundreds of children looked forward to a visit to the state’s only amusement park. For many of us our visit usually occurred on that year-long awaited union day. My Grandpa Reed and my dad were members of a Laborer’s Union that each year treated their employees and families to a day at the park. Weeks in advance my cousins and our friends would plan out our day within the walls of Camden Park alongside the Ohio River in Huntington. Which rides did we want to ride first, of course we rode them all– all a part of our pre-planning for the big day. I for one could hardly fall asleep the night before, visions of the year before were continuously dancing in my head. I think this day for a lot of us, ranked right up there with Christmas, Halloween and of course the last day of school. I remember that in those day our entire Reed family made the 52 mile or 64 minute journey together down I-64 to Huntington in a Reed Family caravan (in the days before Dodge Caravan existed). We knew the landmarks along the way letting us know how close we were getting (oh…we just passed Milton exit…those kind of landmarks) to that Happy Clown. It seemed like it took forever to get the car parked…get everyone together and make what seemed like then, a horribly long journey across the graveled parking lot. Then it felt like we had to stand in line for an hour or more just to get through those wonderful gates, all along being tempted by the screams from riders on the Big Dipper or the Spider, smelling the sweet smell of cotton candy and of course those corn dogs, or as Camden Park called them Pronto Pups, just inside the gates tempting our every sense. We would spend hours running from ride to ride all the while forcing and dragging our adult chaperones to hurry up as it seemed that they liked to walk slower than molasses. I particularly loved the Paratrooper and would ride it dozens of times as there was never more than a no minute wait for any ride. Shortly before noon our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles would start gathering us to go to the picnic pavilion for a meal provided by the union of fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad and rolls and of course all the soda and tea we could drink. We gobbled our food down as fast as we could so we could rush back to the rides that we wouldn’t get to enjoy for another year. It was during one of these union days that I met Jay Rockefeller who was at that time campaigning to become the governor. I remember one of my aunts snatching me over to the foot of the Sky Ride to meet him and get his autograph…really? I had heard his name and was remotely knowledgeable of who he was, but really…it was a Camden Park day!! The same Jay Rockefeller that would give the commencement address at my high school graduation four years later. I remember at the end of those wonderful fun days – we cousins would beg for one of those cornbread covered hot dogs on our way out, a treat we never got at home. Covered in mustard and piping hot, a pronto pup was the best ending of those Camden Park union days! Several years ago I took my daughters to Camden Park hoping that they would feel the same way about it as I had as a child and to my surprise they did! You must understand that we live in the shadows of one of the largest amusement parks in the nation, Cedar Point. Our visit to Camden Park was a really good day for the three of us, they loved the fact that they could get off a ride and almost immediately get back on it, where at Cedar Point they would wait in a 2 hour line for a 20 second ride, we made some very good memories that day. I would be safe in saying that they rode the Big Dipper no less than 20 times that day. They had never experienced the joy of the Whip…the rush of the hill on the Haunted House…the Paratrooper, or feet dangling as we dared not move on the Sky Ride. My memories of Camden Park hadn’t failed me, yes it could use some fresh paint and maintenance, yet I only saw in my mind the most happiest of memories of a young boy in West Virginia…at Camden Park. Oh…and don’t forget to get that Pronto Pup on your way out, I know we did! Now go make your own Pronto Pups and enjoy the era of by-gone days! If you’re in West Virginia or southern Ohio or eastern Kentucky…consider another visit to this historic amusement park, hopefully it will bring back some wonderful memories for you too!
Camden Park opened in 1902 and has been a family owned amusement park ever since, only 26 acres in size and continues to operate two of the three remaining National Amusement Devices roller coasters, the Big Dipper and Little Dipper that are still in operation in the United States. The ornate carousel celebrates 110 years of operation in 2017.