The Coney Island Hot Dog
How many of us remember Coney Island and can still smell the hot dogs, cotton candy, candy apples and much more?

The story of the spread of the hot dog across the land starts at Ellis Island with waves of immigrants in the late 1800s and moves to Manhattan where European sausage makers, many of them Jews, brought their skills and recipes and started life on a shoestring selling Frankfurt and Vienna sausages on street corners and in butcher shops.

Waves of Greek and Macedonian immigrants also appeared on our shores. On rare days off they took their families on the trolley to Coney Island, the great seaside amusement park about 15 miles south of Midtown. There they tasted the Coney Island version of the hot dog and fell in love with it.

As they migrated west, many set up shop on street corners, developed their signature recipe, and with hard work and ingenuity opened a restaurant, then a small chain, and made a good living for themselves and their families. For them, Jews and Greeks especially, the American Hot Dog became The American Dream.   (Video) Nathans still stands today.

As immigrants from Germany, we lived in the Bowery for a few months before we moved to Brooklyn in 1958. I was almost 9 and a family friend took us around to show us the sights of New York City. I thought that I lived in a big city in Germany, but, it was not so big compared to New York City with its tall buildings. The friend whose name was Victor, took us all around the city, the Statue of Liberty and numerous other places. One place he took us to was Coney Island. WOW! for a child my age..this was awesome! So many rides and the beach, the Atlantic Ocean. I was never on a beach before, we only visited lakes back home. We would come to Coney Island every weekend and sometimes during the day in the summer. My mother got to know how the subway system works and took my brother and I to the beach a few times during the week while my father worked. She would not go without a huge basket of food. When you go that much, you bring food with you, but a whole basket full?  One of the rides that I remember going on with my brother was the Wonder Wheel. If you chose the basket on the outside of the wheel, then you can look down and see all the tiny people as the wheel turned, but if you were fortunate to get the inside basket (which was always crowded) then you get to experience the basket coming forward and it would feel like the basket was going to come off the tracts and fall down. It was really scary to me but I must admit it was fun!

After getting to know the city, my parents found new beaches through talking to friends so we started venturing out of our regular routine and we visited Rockaway Beach which was located in Queens, N.Y.,  Brighten Beach and then to top it off, we found Jones Beach. Now if anyone remembers Jones Beach, it seemed to be as far at the tip of Long Island, N.Y. and how you get there if you don’t have a car?….subway, yes with so many changing of lines. Then when we got to the last stop, you get off and stand on a long, long line to catch the bus to Jones Beach. Imagine, everyone going in the same direction and only a few buses. By the time you carry all your stuff and then bags of food that are draping over your shoulders and it is hot and sweaty, Jones Beach did not look so good anymore. Once you got to Jones Beach, all that was forgotten. It was nothing like Coney Island. Yes, they had rides and all, but it was NOT Coney Island. Coney Island was alive. Jones Beach had the huge tidle waves that you can actually jump in, nothing like Coney Island with its somewhat calmer water.

I dreaded going to the beach but my mother loved it.  It just took so long that it took the fun out of it.  Who wanted to sit in the subway cars with all those bags, I felt like we were leaving for a few days that’s how much stuff we took blankets, towels, sunscreen, magazines (incase you want to read), change of clothes, and ofcourse all that food.  When we were ready to leave for home, all that had to be packed up again and the feeling of sunburn pain and claminess you felt once you were exposed to salt water was just too much to bear. Two days later, after the sunburn went away, we headed back again with the same baggage (mom never learned) to have our fun time in the sun.

Lots of times I would take my transister radio with me and listen to the songs that were popular at that time.  You could not hear it in the subway but once we were on the bus or walking, my hand held transister radio was on.  It was the in thing to have a radio with Hi Fi sound, we didn’t have stereo, and sometimes I would have an earphone so I can listen to it without all the street noise.  The transister radio had a 9 volt battery that did not last long at all.  I had to have another battery as a spare. There were some special songs that meant a lot to me and they were special for the summertime at Coney Island.  I would hear them over and over, the sounds and smell of Coney Island was everywhere.  Two special songs that would bring me back to those days were from the Drifters.  I had my handheld transister, hi fi radio that I had gotten for my birthday….Just think 1963 and these songs came out.

Under the Boardwalk

Another song from the Drifters that reminds me of Coney Island – I’ll Take You Home

Coney Island – Forgotten?

Coney Island, once America’s summer playground, has become just a shadow of its former self, despite grand plans for a new subway terminal here, or a new minor league ballpark there. read on

Coney Island Today

Here is a video of Coney Island and their plans to restore this wonderful Landmark

If anyone has ever been to Coney Island and has fond memories of those days, we would like to hear from you. Please leave a comment and share your story with us.

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