Roller Coaster 1983

The industrial look also applies to structures for amusement and play, such as this roller coaster and water wheel at a long-gone amusement park south of Boston. Paragon Park was a summer destination for many Boston-area folk who couldn't afford a nice house on the beach or in the countryside. The park, when open, was always full of families and noise. In the early 1980s, while I was still living in Cambridge, Mass, I used to visit Paragon Park with a roller-coaster-obsessed friend. I would make drawings while she rode the coaster, over and over again. I only rode it once and that was enough. 

You can see that I was just as fascinated by industrial patterns back then as I am now. The wooden framework for the coaster resembled the steel frameworks on the mills and refineries and railroads that I love so much. This coaster was in danger of being demolished when Paragon Park closed in 1985 but it was saved and moved to the "Six Flags America" theme park in Mitchellville, Maryland, not very far northeast of Washington, DC. It is still there, going strong.

Tech pen black ink on sketchbook page, about 8 1/2" x 7 1/2", August 21, 1983.