Photos & Article By Len Rapoport
36 Years And Still Going Strong
Saturday, June 16, 2018
36 years ago the Coney Island Mermaid Parade was born. So it was with great delight and anticipation I would once again visit the city I was born in and loved for so many years. I was born in 1942 and Coney Island was a wonderful place to grow up.
There was the beach, the Parade, the boardwalk, Steeplechase Amusement Park and of course all the rides and games. At 16 I got a job working for Shatzkin’s Knishes on the boardwalk and still today at 75 years old, I miss this delectable treat. Kasha or Potato knishes, both friend until the outter skin was a beautiful golden brown.
So going back to Coney brings many fond memories and covering this parade each year is so much fun. The parade is of course a bit risque with many bare breasted mermaids, but no one seems to mind because after all Mermaids are bare breasted.
This Years King & Queen
“The Royalty for the 36th Annual Mermaid Parade is Queen Amanda Palmer and King Neil Gaiman!!! Each a multimedia power house in their own right, our Royalty bring together a combined interest in arts and mythologies that nourish and sustain our aquatic artistic traditions!!!”
See their video that explains the history of Coney and the preservation society.
You can visit the Coney Island website for more background information on this parade, it will help you plan to attend the parade next year.
Coney Island was crowded and traffic on the adjoining areas was a mess especially after the parade. If you are planning on going to next years parade be warned it could take an hour or longer to get out of Coney.
That said, it did take hours to finally get out of Coney Island. Surf Avenue the parade route was closed so the Sanitation Department could clean the streets and Coney is quite small and traffic on all streets was at a standstill.
Some of Our Photos From The Parade
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