To our east by a few miles lies Rochester’s Lake Ave, famed in song and story.
(Yes, song… most recently, Foreigner’s “Rev on the Red Line”… Lead singer Lou Graham grew up in Gates, a bedroom on Rochester’s West Side.. and often cruised on Lake in the day.) At the north end of Lake is a berg called Charlotte… ( and pronounced by the locals, “CharLOT”)
Years ago, Charlotte was the home of one of the biggest amusement parks in the world, Ontario Beach Park. Folks used to travel from all over the country to get here, in a day and age when such travel was far from as trivial as it is now. It was a tourist destination on the order of what is now Cedar Point over by Sandusky OH.
When I was growing up there were Bumper cars, a couple kiddie rides, and the carousel. I even ran helped to run those bumper cars, back in the day.
These days, the carousel is still there… a Dentzel, erected in 1905. But that’s about it. All that remains is the echoes. Still, there are picnic pavilions and a boardwalk. Lots of boat traffic, what with the yacht club nearby… and some pretty nice sunsets. Donna and I both brought cameras, and here’s some of what we captured.
