Helen Cooper - 13th Birthday, Coney Island, 1959

 

 

I'm one of seven children, the third, which was very hard being the third. We got along pretty good. We did a lot of fighting. That was fun. [audience laughter] Usually on our birthdays, our mother gave us a choice of what type of cake did you want. We didn't have regular birthday parties, so choosing your cake was really nice. My sisters and brothers always wanted something plain chocolate, vanilla, coconut. But not me. I always wanted something exciting, something different. I wanted purple and rainbow, something with M&Ms on it. 

 

But something wonderful happened around the time of my 12th birthday. My mother asked me, “What do you want to do for your birthday?” Not what kind of cake you want. She said, “What did you want to do?” I couldn't believe my ears. She was asking me, “Helen?” “What did I want to do for my birthday?” I quickly said, “I want to go to Coney Island and play Skee-Ball.” And to my surprise, she said, yes. 

 

Coney Island was a beautiful place back then, 1959. They had so many attractions. They had the fun house. They had the fat lady, you guess how much she weighed. They had the petting zoo for the children that had that two headed snake and the three-legged chicken. [audience laughter] Oh, it was wonderful. [audience laughter] They had the steeplechase park. You thought you were winning the race, but they were mechanical horses. [audience laughter] They had the roller coasters. The thunderbolt was the best. It whipped around the corners faster than just the plain old-- I forgot the name of it. [audience laughter] The cyclone. [applause] Then they had the games you played. 

 

I only loved Skee-Ball. It was a bowling type game. You had three circles you had to get these balls into to win points. The points amounted to so much, you got tickets for it which you could buy a gift. That was the best game in the whole park. You could have your rides. I wanted to play Skee-Ball. So, my mother said, yes, I could go. So, then I really took a chance. I closed my eyes, and put my hand behind my back and crossed my fingers. I said, “Can I go alone?” [audience laughter] 

 

I opened one eye, because she was taking a long time. She said, “Yes, you could have knocked me over with a feather.” [audience laughter] “You mean I really can go by myself?” “Yes.” I couldn't wait to tell the others. You could imagine the uproar, “How come she get to go by herself?” [audience laughter] “It's her birthday and we're starting something new. When your birthday comes, you can choose where you want to go.”

 

So, the week went on and I'm all excited. My birthday fell on a Sunday, which was Father's Day off. My father was a cab driver and he did the evening shift. So, we never really got time to really talk to him or be around him, because when he was asleep, we were in school. When he was up, we were asleep. So, when Sunday came, I found out my father was taking me. This is extra icing on the cake. My father's taking me to Coney Island. He had brought his cab home the night before. So, I'm not only going to get to go with my father, I'm going to ride in the cab. I don't have to take the train. It's time to go. 

 

I sit in the backseat like I'm a passenger, a paid passenger. [audience laughter] As we go along, my father tried to talk to me like any other father would do, “How was school?” “Oh, it's okay.” I didn't tell him about the things I had got in trouble about. [audience laughter] But before we knew it, we were at Coney Island. I'm saying to myself, the most I can really hope for is $2, $3 to play this game. My father hands me a bill. I said, “Darn, he gave me a dollar.” And then, I looked down, it was a $10 bill. I said, “Well, how much of this can I spend?” All of it is yours. “Oh, thank you.” I rushed off to get it changed before he come to his senses. [audience laughter] So, here I am and I'm playing this Skee-Ball. I'm just playing it. 

 

Finally, I'm getting all these tickets. I'm really excited. Here comes my father, “It's time to eat now.” Okay. Gather up my tickets and we go off to Nathan's to have that famous hot dog. [audience laughter] I gobble it down as fast as I can, and I'm on my way back and my father says, “Wipe that mustard off your face.” I didn't know I had mustard on my face. This is taking up time. [audience laughter] “Wipe it off. Rush back.” To my horror, somebody was playing my machine. I stood there a minute and I said, “Well, maybe they'll get tired and they'll go away and I can use this machine. I had done so well on it. It was mine.” I waited a while, and they were just doing so well on it too. So, I chose another machine. 

 

And lo and behold, I did better on that machine than I did on the other one. [audience laughter] Finally, my father came again and he said, “We've got to go.” “But daddy, I got all these dimes.” “Okay, finish that dimes and then we have to go.” I finished up the dimes. I got so many tickets. Here I go. I'm going to the counter. I'm going to choose my gift. The first thing I saw was a big white cup with Coney Island on it, and it pictured a Ferris wheel. That's mine, and nobody's drinking out of it but me. [audience laughter] Then I saw a kewpie doll. Oh, that's mine too. It had a puff of blonde hair, and big rosy cheeks and it was on a stick. [audience laughter] Nobody's touching this, but me.

 

And then, it hit me, my sisters and brothers. I'll have to buy them something, so they won't touch my stuff. [audience laughter] I get everybody something. Luckily, I had enough tickets to get everybody something. My stuff was safe. So, we started home. My father asked me, “How did I like my day out by myself.” “Oh, it was wonderful, daddy. I never had a day like this. This is like heaven.” I sat there looking at him as he drove the way home. I sat in the front going home. I just looked at him, said, “You know, I'm not just any kid. I'm his daughter and it's my birthday.”