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Hi Joe & John: Thank YOU for a wonderful hour of fun with our friends and family last Saturday with the Thriller car. John was patient as we loaded the elders and the handicapped in and out - and they were THRILLED to have the chance to ride! We are already discussing ideas for our next rental! We love the cars and everything related to Euclid Beach - such happy memories for everyone. Hope to see you at the annual Euclid Beach festival in September. -Linda Linda

Some people get tears in their eyes when they see things they remember from Geauga Lake Amusement Park.

For that reason, Euclid Beach Boys Joe Tomaro and John Frato jump at the chance to show their collections in public.

"It's a step back in time," Tomaro said, also referring to the duo's memorabilia from Euclid Beach Park, which closed 40 years ago. "People close their eyes and they hear the music and they can just hear the ride."

Anyone who's not yet experienced such a flashback, but loved Geauga Lake — which operated from 1888 to 2007 in Aurora and Bainbridge Township — is now invited to the first ever Geauga Lake Memorabilia Show and Employee Reunion.

The event, which is not affiliated with Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. or Geauga Lake's Wildwater Kingdom, will be from 7 to 10:30 p.m. March 6 at Roller Hutt Skate & Fun Center, 10268 Hewins Road, Route 88, Garrettsville.

The event will feature a slew of collectors of Geauga Lake memorabilia, and organizer Jason Dlugokecki hopes to create the ambiance of the amusement park where he worked from the summers of 1994 to 1998; tunes and tasty scents that once drifted over the park will fill this festival, too, care of a DJ and a carnival food concession stand.

Fellow employees of Geauga Lake, Six Flags Ohio and Sea World Ohio also might take this opportunity to reconnect, he said.

"I met my wife there, pretty much all of my friends are from there, and you troll the Internet boards and there are Web sites all over still dedicated to the park," he said.

"I consider it my generation's version of Euclid Beach; we thought it would be there forever and all of a sudden it's gone."

One Aurora exhibitor will be looking to sell items he bought during the June 2008 auction of its outbuildings, rides and equipment. Another man will sell paper weights made from wood salvaged from the Big Dipper's disassembly.

But most of the memorabilia that day will be for amusement purposes only, Dlugokecki said. Euclid Beach Boys will bring a log flume boat from the former Log Ride in which visitors will be able to sit and take photographs, and possibly a Musik Express car.

Others will show items from the Turtle Beach children's area, home videos, employee training videos, and footage of the park's auction and tear down on a few large projection screens.

Dlugokecki said his own display will include the head of park mascot Geauga Dog, uniforms from his employment, signs, posters and banners, and pictures of rides being constructed during the off season.

Admission is $5 to cover the facility's operating costs for a nonskating event, but exhibitors and event volunteers get in free.

"People just have fond memories of parks," Tomaro said, "and it's a whole 'nother generation coming up for Geauga Lake."

Geauga Lake enthusiasts taking a look back....