Ocean View, the Nickel Tour - Part VI - Joe Leatherman's memories of Ocean View Amusement Park

Joe Leatherman shares his memories with the OV Tour...
email Joe at: oceanviewpark@cox.net
See Joe's images: Long's Portraits & Joe's Vintage Cards & Joe's 50's Cards & Downtown OVintage
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Hi RK--

Enjoy your OV site immensely, and just wanted to share a few of my memories. My parents divorced when I was a year old and by the time I was eight, I'd become quite a handful for my single Mother. So, in 1964 I was shipped off to Norfolk from Ohio, on a Greyhound bus to live with the father I had never known. I was terrified and didn't know what to expect.

Turned out the old man worked at OV Amusement Park. It was like winning the lottery. He worked at various games part-time after his day job at the shipyard, and my Grandmother Mary Collins (photo at left, wrapped in a boa constrictor) who had been employed there since 1948, sold tickets at different rides, and in later years worked at the Snakes Alive and petting zoo attractions. My Dad's name is Clee Leatherman, but everyone in OV knew him as "Red". My sister, Eve Leatherman worked at the Skeeball game. We lived a block away on Portview Ave for about ten years, in a small four room cottage behind the Rosele Theater, and next to the Golden Furniture store (which became a game room/hippy hangout called the Golden Palace).

I was quickly accepted by the close knit group of employees, and was a member of the OV Park family. During the summer I had the run of the place for 12 hours a day. All the employees knew me, and I had a nice little operation going, running change to the ticket booths and doing errands for the help: in exchange for tips and free rides. My base of operations was the work shop at the penny arcade. In exchange for keeping the glass on the pinball machines clean and the arcade free of trash, the technician, Clifton Reed, would pop off 10 or 20 games on my favorite machine. He'd let me hang out in his shop, and nap on his well worn couch when I felt the need.

I'd watch "Reed" as he repaired the machines, amazed at his skills, which I'm sure was a big part in my developing an interest in electronics, a field I've been employed in for 22 years. I knew which machines had coin returns that had a tendency to hang up, and with a quick flick of my trusty metal nail file, the dime would roll out. On a real busy weekend, the coins would sometimes back up behind each other and it was like hitting a jack pot on a slot machine.

Remember the peep show movies they had in the back of the arcade? My first glimpse of a naked woman came from a two frame scrap of 8mm film found on the work shop floor. Not much, but when your 8 or 9, it doesn't take much.

My favorite ride was the Tunnel of Fun (Old Mill). I still recall the sound of the boat hitting the walls as it went through, and the dank and musty smell of the dark tunnel. I never did go through with a girl though. My best friend Harvey Lamm (of Seaview Ave) and I would get out of the boat, and walk along the narrow ledge. Once I slipped and fell in the water and couldn't catch up to the boat. I came wading out of the tunnel, expecting to get royally chewed out by the operator, who I knew well. He looked at me and just started laughing. Word did eventually get back to my Grandmother, and I was banished from the park for two weeks. Sheer torture! On a sadder note years later, Harvey (by then a park employee) was thrown from the roller coaster and killed --always the show off, he'd been standing up, and lost balance on the way down the second hill.

[At right is a photo of Harvey, 3rd Grader, Mrs. Latella's class. Joe Leatherman provided also an old Pilot clipping circa 1976: Test ride fatal on roller coaster which in part read:

"Harvey C. Lamm Jr., 20, an employee of the Ocean View Amusement Park was killed Sunday morning when he fell part way out of the park's "Skyrocket" roller coaster and struck his head..."

No doubt Joe still misses his old daredevil friend Harvey, a friend going back to Ocean View Elementary, and the mid 60's. --R K]

I worked at the park officially when I turned 16. My first job was manning the pooper scooper at the petting zoo and later at the main restaurant by the front gate called the Sip & Bite. There were also many hours spent as the Scissor Person in the Bargin Day Booth, cutting off the excess string after the wrist bands were put on. I was hoping to attend the auction when they sold off stuff from the park, but I'd just started a new job and couldn't get off. I was cited for trespassing shortly after it's closing when, while feeling no pain, I climbed the fence late one Saturday night in search of something, anything to remember her by. I was in possession of a ride sign from the Trabant that I pulled off a fence, and a few drink cups with the OV logo that were blowing down the boardwalk, when I was confronted by the night watchman and his dog. I told him my story --but he was a real hard nose, as was the dog, turning me over to the Norfolk Police.

I was able to go back and retrieve a board from the roller coaster that I had thrown over the fence earlier, but after years of cutting off pieces for friends, it was accidentally trashed during a move. I sure miss the place and have developed a new passion since learning of it's splendid past through postcards and this great site.

<==If you fished at the "Ocean View Pier/OVP" you'd receive a brass token to redeem for free parking in the East End parking lot-- in the 1960's parking rose from 25˘ to 35˘

If I had to pick one memory as my favorite, it would be lying in my bed and listening to the sounds of the park. The clickity-clack of the coaster's lift chain, people screaming on the way down the first hill, and top 40 hits blaring from the Dance Hall's outside speaker.

Incidentally, my wife is the former Mary Kocsis, who grew up on Leicester. We now live in the Wedgewood area of Norfolk --with our son/college student Brent. We have 3 dogs-- Deuce, Roxie, and Burford (who's a 100 lb Chow/Pit mix, a stray) which I picked up on 4th Bay last June.

Thanks so much RK for the wonderful job you do with the site, and thanks also to other contributors for sharing their memories. I visit [the OV Tour] often and always come away feeling so good about growing up in Ocean View.

Take care... Joe
See Joe's: Long's Portraits & Joe's Vintage Cards & Joe's 50's Cards & Downtown OVintage
& More 4 OVintage & Playboy Recollection

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