The amusement park ride, I mean. Get your mind out of the gutter.
I was listening to “Palisades Park” by Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon the other night and it occurred to me that, while the Tunnel of Love seemed to be a widespread cultural image in my youth, I’ve never actually seen one. Wikipedia says they were common in the early to mid-20th century. Anyone ever seen/been on one of these?
I actually went to Palisades Amusement Park as a kid. I don’t recall any Tunnel of LOve there. There’s none that I can see at the Palisades Park website ( http://www.palisadespark.com/ )
In fact, I don’t recallk ever seeing a Tunnel of LOve at any park, anywhere. I suspect that if they ever had one, it’d be a Tunnel of Foreplay (as one Playbnoy cartoon wryly noted).
Edited to add: There IS a pic of the Arabian Nights Tunnel of Love under “Modern Rides” on that site. But I certainly don’t recall it.
Edited to add: The Wikipedia page on Tnnel of Love claims that there’s still one in nSweden:
I remember the old “Time Tunnel” at Six Flags near St. Louis, which was not called a “Tunnel of Love” but seemed to serve no other purpose than to provide teenagers a few minutes of relative privacy in a cool dark place. Other than that, no, I’ve never seen one. I’m 39, so I probably missed the heyday of the Tunnel of Love.
I thought this was interesting from the Wiki page: “With the development of other socially acceptable opportunities and less stigma for unmarried couples to engage in physical contact, these rides have became less popular and were either re-themed into children’s attractions or torn down completely.” This seems to be the case with the “Time Tunnel”, which looks like it was changed to some kind of Scooby Doo theme ride. I haven’t been to Six Flags in over 20 years, so I am relying on Google to make me feel old and cranky.
I’ve been to the one at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I got smooched, too!
I went through one on numerous occasions. It was about five minutes of slow floating in the darkness, then the “log” you were riding in went way up a ramp then down a scary log flume sorta thingy and the ride was over. Unfortunately it was always with my male cousin of about the same age. Obviously it had more potential for better paired humans.
As little kids we thought it great fun. As an adult looking back now I can see what the REAL purpose most likely was (long enough to have some fun, but not long enough to get too far along).
The Minnesota State Fair has had one for nigh on to 99 years.
http://www.kare11.com/news/article/932751/391/Ye-Old-Mill-to-get-a-makeover