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Hackensack History / Re: Kiddie Wonderlands (River Edge)
« on: June 28, 2019, 04:22:43 PM »
In the summer of 1954, the year before I turned 14 (and would be legally allowed to work), I learned that Kiddie Wonderland would "hire" underage boys to work the pony track. My mother insisted I find some work and it was she who learned about the jobs. In addition to walking the ponies around a dirt track when Kiddie Wonderland was open, we were responsible for grooming and feeding the ponies and mucking out the stables. It was hard work, but we had a lot of down time to screw around. On one rainy day, when KW was closed, all us boys went to the movie together and discovered that no-one would sit near us because we smelled like horses! We were NOT paid an hourly wage but paid according to what the owner thought was fair (), based on how crowded KW was over the week. . It was a fun summer. The owner liked having young boys around (?) and even took a bunch of us to a pony farm when he was purchasing ponies. Since there were usually 5 or 6 of us, with a lot of down time, it was like working on a farm in the middle of Hackensack.