Here is a picture of my Grandfather and Uncle when they were young. Pictured from left: Karl Strohl, Mildred Basch, and Ralph Strohl. Karl and Ralph grew up to operate the Nay Aug Amusement Park. I don’t think I ever met their sister Mildred.

I’m not sure how I received this old newspaper clipping. Pictured are my great grandparents at Nay Aug Park. Adolf Strohl, father to Karl and Ralph Strohl, used to hold dances in what became the Dodgem building on Nay Aug Amusement Park. I wish I knew more details about this. I could never get my grandfather to talk about it.

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The following pictures are from a family collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Scranton Times on July 7, 1976.

The bottom left image shows the Trabant, but the photo caption states roller coaster. The girl in the upper right photo is my cousin, Amy. She was living in Germany at the time with her family.

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I was contacted by Kelly Lawless-Perles, who was kind enough to send me two of her family pictures at Nay Aug Park. Thanks, Kelly!!!

 

 

Another arcade game at Nay Aug:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used to love to go into the arcade at Nay Aug Amusement park. My grand father used to give me multiple rolls of quarters, which to me felt like a fortune. I used to play the arcade games for hours. I’m trying to find pictures of some of the games I remember, but if you happen to remember any of the machines that used to be at Nay Aug, it would be great if you could drop a comment on the site.

The first one I remember is Sea Wolf. I remember it because of all the noise it used to make. It was a constant background noise at the park.

 

 

I found these images at Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum.

Sea Wolf, Midway, 1976, electronic video game version of Sea Devil (1970), a submarine game where the player looks through a periscope to shoot ships on a black and white video monitor with a color overlay. . . . Torpedos are launched with a thumb button on the right handle of the scope. Mines floating across the screen can block players torpedoes. Fast-moving PT Boat (worth most points) is hardest to hit. Game ends when time expires. Bonus time is added when player reaches operator-selectable point level. Players look through a periscope to aim at ships. A targeting cross-hair and the number of torpedos remaining are seen through the scope. When the player has launched five torpedos, a red “RELOAD” light comes on momentarily. These are not shown on the screen, but are back-lit transparencies reflected inside the scope. Likewise, when ships are hit on the screen, an explosion “light” is reflected inside the scope. . . . The most memorable and distinguishing sounds from this game have to be the sonar and the sound of the PT Boat racing across the screen (oscillating, buzzing sound).

One of my best childhood memories was going to visit my grandfather, who owned the Nay Aug Amusement Park in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Nay Aug Amusement Park was a small amusement park within the Nay Aug Park grounds. It was run by two brothers, Karl and Ralph Strohl, who received the park from their father. Karl’s wife Ruth and Ralph’s wife Sara (for whom my oldest child is named) both used to work in the back ticket booth on busy days. The amusements included toy tanks in a circle (later switched to cars and motorcycles), caterpillar, bumper cars, helicopters, cars on a track, merry-go-round, boats in a small pond, and a small whip. One of the park’s highlights was the small wooden roller coaster, the Comet Coaster (also known as Comet, Jr.). There was a miniature Lackawanna train which went around the roller coaster. There were also several “adult rides”: the Trabant, the Scrambler, and the Tilt-A-Whirl.

There was an arcade that housed the bumper cars, pinball machines, and some vending. It was previously a dance hall during the 1930s and 1940s where big bands came to play. The park was closed in the 1990s, and its site is now green space. If you know where to look, you can still see some of the painted railing from the park in some of the brush.

I’ve run across a number of people over time who have been to the park. If anyone has any photos of the park, I would love to have copies. You can send the photos via the contact page.

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Photo Gallery

Little Boats that went in circles. For some reason, more fights between kids and their parents happened here than any other ride.

My cousin Amy Wasserman on one of the Old Fashioned Cars that used to go around on a track at the back of the park. This picture ran in the Scranton Times on July 7, 1976.

The Caterpillar, Photo Credit: Lane by Lane on Flickr

You can see the roller coaster coming around behind the train.

Not exactly what the cars were like at Nay Aug, but close. Photo Credit: knoebels.com

Main photo: from family photos - back of park with helicopter ride. Inset photo: kiltedlibrarian on Flickr

The Merry-Go-Round at Nay Aug Amusement Park. There was always loud patriotic music playing. Photo: family photos.

Pictured from Left to Right are: Mark Wasserman (my cousin), Mindy Spak (my sister), Amy Wasserman (my cousin), Neal Levene (me), and Karl Strohl (my grandfather and co-owner of the park). The picture was taken around 1976.

View of the park from front across the street where the adult rides were located when I was a child.

Photo Credit: manganelli.org

Photo Credit: Kittie55 on Flickr

This ride went through at least three versions. Here is pictured toy tanks that used to go around in circles. Around the time of the Vietnam War, this ride became fire engines and colored cars, and in the early eighties, it was these motor cycles and buggies with these buzzers that you would hear all afternoon. Photo: from family photos.

Photo Credit: G Barret on Flickr

The train went around the roller coaster tracks. This was the only ride that I was never allowed to operate. My older cousin, Mark, for some reason was allowed to do so. I was very jealous.

The Whip, Photo Credit: Hoffman on Flickr