By Jennifer Fickley-Baker
Hello, readers!
One of my favorite parts in writing the short story “The Haunting at Darlington Boardwalk” for the inaugural issue of Ground was creating the look and feel of the fictional DARLINGTON BOARDWALK.
My version of a 1920s-era boardwalk was partially inspired by two places in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (I know, we don’t have ocean boardwalks there). But we do have a boardwalk. My first job when I turned 16 was working in concessions at a water park that was architecturally themed after a 1940s-1950s era boardwalk. The water park happened to be a sister park to my second place of inspiration—Kennywood Park.
Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, PA, is more than 100 years old. I, like so many other kids growing up in Pittsburgh in the 1980s, spent very special summer days there enjoying thrill rides, playing games of chance, and devouring funnel cakes and Potato Patch French fries. Part of the charm of Kennywood Park for me has always been the architecture of its older attractions and restaurants. If you study a building long enough, it’s like you’re transported back in history.
Why make a carousel a central focus in my short story? Because I find there’s something odd that changes about them after the sun goes down. They’re a different experience during the day—I’d always run to find the most beautiful horse I could among the bunch. At night, the lights of a carousel seem to outshine the beauty of the horses, glowing in the night, the music blaring away into the latest of hours. The beauty of the horses is lost among the light and the blaring music, as the overtired version of you, swirl in circles in the dark.
If you haven’t read “The Haunting at Darlington Boardwalk” yet, you can grab your copy of Ground here.