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This is a photo of Pontchartrain Beach, the venerable New Orleans amusement park that operated from 1929 to 1983. I don’t know who took this photo, so if anyone does, please drop me a line, so I can give them proper attribution. The image is from the 1970s, showing the main food concession stand on the midway. The architecture style of all the midway attractions, as well as the Batt family residence (which was on the park grounds) was Streamline Moderne, a variant of Art Deco.
Pontchartrain Beach
Da Beach was important to me from the time I was a kid. A quick bit of background: my dad was a New Yorker, my mom a New Orleanian. They met when my dad was in the Air Force (he was an ATC instructor at Keesler AFB in Biloxi). By the time they got married, he got an offer to work for Raytheon as an electronics engineer (he taught electronics, and this was the 1950s when there was a great demand for “engineers” even if they didn’t have college degrees. So, they moved to Boston. My mom just couldn’t handle the New England winters. After two of them, they packed up and returned to New Orleans. Daddy went to work at LSUNO, starting the Eletronics Shop in the College of Science.
Momma took a job teaching in Jefferson Parish, so we lived in Metairie. As I got older, I’d go out to the Lakefront with daddy and hang out. We’d also go to Pontchartrain Beach, to swim, see the shows, and ride the rides.
For high school, I chose Brother Martin. That worked out nicely for family logistics, since daddy could drop me off in the morning. I like to say I grew up in Gentilly while sleeping in Metairie, and part of that growing up was going out to Da Beach. Once we were old enough that friends were driving, it was a great, wholesome, cheap date. Additionally, when I was a tenth grader, I was on the NJROTC Drill Team. Since the football team and the band monopolized the school’s backyard for their practices, we’d pile into cars and go up to the lake, practicing in the beach’s parking lot. Ah, fond memories all around.
The neon of the park’s midway mesmerized me even as a little kid. I can’t help but look at Beach photos and smile.
