A Departed Pirate’s Former Haunt
Updated: Dec 2, 2022
From the time that I moved to the North Carolina coast as a young child, the Boardwalk at Carolina Beach was one of my favorite haunts. My family used to take us to ride the amusement park rides operated by Sea Shore Amusements (until they moved to a new business location, Jubilee Park), rode the bumper cars, played the various games at the arcades, played Putt-Putt, and enjoyed hot-buttered corn on the cob, corn dogs, hot dogs, burgers, and candy apples at The Landmark.
I even had a babysitter that took my brothers and I to a Boardwalk bar after school let out to play pinball on the bar’s Elton John pinball machine and to play pool. Of course, that ended when my mom and her friend were showing pictures of their kids to the bartender and discovered that we had been coming to the bar with the daughter of my mom’s friend.
I continued going to the Boardwalk as we got older and the scenery changed. The Wave theater burned down. A couple waterslides came and went, as did a skateboard park. The old electromechanical arcade games were largely replaced by electronic video games.
The area got a bit seedier, particularly late In the evening. A couple times friends and I ventured inside the “notorious Longbranch” to drink beer. A friend and I once entered a topless bar on the Boardwalk and found a former classmate dancing. It was kind of surreal to be sitting with a topless former classmate and chatting like old friends. And following a few icy cold pitchers of beer, the bumper cars were as entertaining as ever. But you had better came prepared to bang. “If you want to dance, you have to pay the fiddler!”
Fortunately, the former haunt of my childhood and early adulthood has seen a revitalization of late. Some of the places that I frequented are no longer there. But the last time that I was there, me, a buddy, his wife, her sister, and their female friend all enjoyed some drinks and listening to a husband and wife musical duo that we previously used to see perform in the same bar where my brothers and I used to play pinball and pool with our babysitter. May the good times continue to roll on the Boardwalk!
For a little history regarding the Carolina Beach Boardwalk, see the link below.
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