At the Liberty Port in Bayonne, New Jersey my wife of 38 years cried when she learned that there were only going to be two thousand men on the ship younger than me. They looked like tears of joy but I'm not sure. Anyway this is what the S.S. Explorer Of The Seas looks like. I saw no U.S.N. or U.SM.C. near the ship but I do trust my wife. I went aboard ship to cross the Pacific in 1968 but the ship wasn't much like this one.
Back at Belmont Park, I railratted an early race but thought I might share some backyard photos. The brick and the huge arched windows were on the back side of the original grandstand and the motif was kept in the mid 1960's when the old grandstand from 1905 was plowed down and a new building was put up:
Walking some rides in the backyard:
Drunks and dummies and newbies in the backyard rarely ever see the 1905 gate that the New York Racing Asssociation left standing after the new track was built in the late 1960s. My grandfather went through that gate and so did my father as a boy in 1920s. It's just a "thing" along a fence now.
The wrought iron gate under the brick arch entryway from 1905 is still there:
