It was a proper party for a 100-year-old. Cake, of course, and balloons. Add mimosas, salmon, quiche and an array of breakfast treats.
Also significant: The birthday subject had to be resuscitated about 50 years ago. But friends who brought it back to life and sustained it were there to celebrate.
Mission Beach’s Belmont Park is officially a centenarian Friday.
Giving praise Tuesday were San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, park general manager Steve Thomas and members of the Save the Coaster committee from the 1970s and ’80s. (Decades ago, the committee persuaded the city to save the park from demolition).
And in these divided times, the amusement park is an apolitical respite, Gloria suggested on Belmont Park Day in San Diego.
“Folks don’t seem to be getting along as much,” the mayor said. “But when you come here, that kind of all washes away, and you can just have a wonderful time with your family, with your friends, great kinds of memories that will last a lifetime.
“We need more of Belmont Park in our lives.”
GM Thomas spoke first at the morning celebration. He mentioned that he visits entertainment parks across the nation to bring ideas back to our city.
Dollywood in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee caught Thomas’ eye. It was “extremely authentic” to the area in terms of theme, food and music.
That authenticity meant much to Thomas.
“Belmont Park is the quintessential San Diego experience,” he said. “It’s who we are.
“We’ve been providing a hundred years of just community fun and memories. And what we do here is provide those memories. We love to do it with that San Diego feel.”
Back in 1925 when the park opened, San Diego’s population was about the size of Escondido’s (150,000), Gloria pointed out.
Among the city landmarks that didn’t exist yet were the Old Globe Theater, El Cortez Hotel, and the Museum of Art in Balboa Park. Nor had the Star of India arrived or the Padres become even a minor league team.
Since that time, the park has had roughly 700 million visitors, Thomas said. The 75-foot-tall Giant Dipper roller coaster has taken visitors on over 70 million rides.
As a person who enjoyed the park as a child, Gloria said it was a cheap and easy way for his parents to entertain their kids.
Though it was special to him as a child, it wasn’t then what the improved version is now.
“No one else in the country has anything as good as this,” he said. “This is a truly exceptional place. I’m grateful that we can take this time to acknowledge it, to celebrate it, and then to look forward to another 100 years.”
Two members of the Save the Coaster Committee remarked about the centennial.
“I’m stunned,” said member Judy Swink. Her memories centered on efforts to make this anniversary possible.
“All the work that we did over a 10-year period to kind of hold the line while we were waiting to see what would come next,” Swink said. “And we held the line until the city could come up with a new operator to complete the restoration.”
It’s an icon of Mission Beach, and it needed to remain here, said Swink, who strongly believes in historic preservation.
Committee member Cathy Scott recalled how her great grandfather ran the wooden coaster decades ago. With his strong Norwegian accent, he had trouble finding other work.
The family visited him at the park, took the trolley and spent the day playing in the sand and riding the roller coaster, Scott said.
Scott, a journalist and author of best-selling books on crime, said helping to save the coaster was very personal for her — part of her family history.
Once again Tuesday, 86-year-old Dale Chamberlain looked up at the coaster he had ridden.
It was right after World War II when he first visited the park with his parents. It wasn’t until he was 10 that he got to ride on the coaster, not just admire it.
“Of course, my dad rode with me,” Chamberlain recalled. “And from then on, you know, every time I got an opportunity when we come down here, I wanted to ride the roller coaster, then I think it cost us 10 cents.”
It was the first climb and dip that sold him.
“That’s what you always are waiting for, that first drop,” he said.
Chamberlain described the sensation.
“It’s like riding in an old, rickety horse-drawn, you know, hay truck or some truck (that’s) good hitting all the dips and crevices in the road or in the dirt or whatever. And it gives you that same sensation,” he said.
Another of his fondest memories of the Mission Beach spot is the Plunge, where he learned to swim. He took a swim class and even jumped off the old high dive.
Spencer Meinburg, general manager of the Plunge, noted in his remarks that the pool has so far hosted more than 10,000 birthday parties.
Chamberlain also reminisced about digging holes in the beach sand and cooking hot dogs.
Eleven-year-old Tinsley Aho — creating her own Belmont Park memories Tuesday — described the ride while standing in line.
“There’s like a bunch of adrenaline when you’re going up, and then right when you’re falling down, you kind of like lose your stomach,” she said. “But it’s really good. It’s a really fun ride.
“I recommend it.”
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