Crystal Beach

“The memories within the millions of people who experienced Crystal Beach, even just once, will never be lost.” One of Canada’s greatest entertainment centres existed for one hundred years in an isolated little village in one of the southernmost corners of Ontario, just across the lake from Buffalo, New York. Nicknamed “Buffalo’s Coney Island,” the Crystal Beach Amusement Park swarmed with American visitors in its mid-century glory days, and its stories were carried all over the world. A Crystal Beach resident since childhood, Gary Pooler takes readers behind the scenes of a world class amusement park, combining local history, sports journalism, true crime, and North American folklore to create a unique picture of the quirky Crystal Beach community, both in and “out of the park,” through its geographical and social history. These collected stories tell of the life and times in an amusement park resort community—a summer-long carnival, illegal prizefighting in the nearby sand hills, world class entertainers and athletes, featuring the likes of Jesse Owens, an eccentric traveling minstrel, vaudevillians settling in the village, police scandals, bootlegging, and even murder. Pooler chronicles the gradual decline and closure of the amusement park and the effect this had on the village, and illustrates the community’s triumphant renaissance in recent years. Harrowing and nostalgic, Crystal Beach: Out of the Park is a rare and vital historical record and a spirited exploration of Crystal Beach in all of its various shades and stages.

The American Dream came true in Canada as U.S. entrepreneurs converted a wilderness lakeshore into the Crystal Beach amusement park. An excursion to Crystal Beach meant a trip on the Canadiana or one of the other ferries that whisked eager Americans over the border. Once inside the park, visitors experienced unforgettable sights, smells and thrills.

Covers the history of Crystal Beach Park, focusing on the midway and the park's growth and development from 1890 through its demise in 1989. Includes the history of all the Crystal Beach rides, with over 300 archival photos, park layouts that illustrate the evolution of the midway with background information about the people behind the park.

A well-crafted debut novel that offers serious food for thought for young readers, without being too scary Effie knew she wasn't the same after her accident but didn't realize how different she had become until her family vacation. When Effie begins to hear whispers and have visions things get really strange! Effie finds a love letter to her mother that isn't from her father! A strange mystery girl seems to follow her wherever she goes but vanishes before Effie can confront her. Even the rides in the amusement park begin to speak to her! Effie wonders; is she going crazy? Are all the things that are happening trying to tell her something? The perfect mystery story for those who love Crystal Beach and it's popular amusement park that was closed down in 1989.

It's the summer of 1990 and Crystal Beach has lost its beloved, long-running amusement park, leaving the lakeside village a virtual ghost town. It is back to this fallen community Starla Mia Martin must return to live with her overbearing mother after dropping out of university and racking up significant debt. But an economic downturn, mother-daughter drama, and Generation X disillusionment soon prove to be to be the least of Starla's troubles. A mysterious and salacious force begins to dog Starla; inexplicable sounds in the night and unimaginable sites spotted in the periphery. Soon enough, Starla must confront the unresolved traumas that haunt Crystal Beach. Sodom Road Exit might read like a conventional paranormal thriller, except that Starla is far from a conventional protagonist. Where others might feel fear, Starla feels lust and queer desire. When others might run, Starla draws the horror nearer. And in turn, she draws a host of capricious characters toward her—all of them challenged to seek answers beyond their own temporal realities. Sodom Road Exit, the second novel by Lambda Literary Award winner Amber Dawn, is a book that's alive with both desire and dread. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.

A talented writer could craft a short paragraph about his first novel in such a way as to demand further attention. I'm not that good. However, Crystal Beach Sunset is set in an interesting place and time and the interplay among the four principal characters will have universal appeal. What's not to like about a self-proclaimed devout atheist who does charitable work in several area churches? The day-to-day narrative begins when Jim and Rebecca Thornton, corporate banker and English teacher, opt for a two-week vacation on the shores of Lake Erie across from Buffalo. They expect some quiet time away from the heat of Manhattan and not the four-week, life-changing adventure that ensues. But then, they did not imagine that they would spend so much time with their landlord, a middle-aged, self employed, non-tax paying eccentric and his live-in twenty-eight year old girlfriend, a part time stripper and part time exercise rider at the local racetrack. The story takes place in Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, NewYork, its crossborder neighbor, during the late summer of 1989. It ends on Labor Day that year, the last day of operation of Crystal Beach, a popular amusement park on the lake. The four principal characters occupy a lakefront property one bay over, the fifty year old Jack Mahoney and Linda McCollum in the main house and the young couple from New York City in the rental cottage. A cancellation provides an offer of a free extension of their stay if they "assist with some projects." The characters connect by gender and prim is influenced by the bawdier side of life and proper by the unconventional. The area backdrop provides a second sharp contrast, current and historical, between the Canadian and American sides of the Niagara River. Photo: (c) 2008, Above All Aerial & Specialty Photography-Ohio www.aboveallohio.com