FUN FOR GROWN- UPS

New York’s Coney Island may well be the capital of cheesy, nostalgic summer holiday destinations. But we all have our own special childhood memory. Here, writers and travellers give us a snapshot of their own Coney Islands

俗艷而充滿懷舊氣息的紐約康是尼島 許多人童年度暑假的勝地，而許多人也各有難忘的童年度假體驗。以下是多位作家與旅分人 享他們的珍貴回憶

The new Woody Allen movie, Wonder Wheel, is set in the 1950s, in Coney Island. For generations of New Yorkers, the resort and its huge amusement park on a manmade Brooklyn peninsula was the epicentre of mid-century American hedonism: cheesy, cheap, colourful and sexy. It inspired beat poets and novelists, musicians from Lou Reed to Beyoncé, and dozens of feature films (including Allen’s earlier masterpiece, Annie Hall, onboard this month).

I first visited Coney Island in the ’70s. It was my first day on American soil, and a blindingly hot and sticky day it was, too. I was a moody kid made moodier with jetlag. But even then – it was, like the rest of the city, entering a period of seedy decline – Coney was kind of irresistible.

Places like that are. All the grown-up and sophisticated places we go to in later life seem monochrome next to the fluorescent images of sand dunes and ice creams, rollercoasters and seaside cafes.

So we thought we’d ask some very grown-up travellers to leaf through the faded snapshots of their holiday memories and choose their own Coney Islands, the special holiday places of their childhood.

We’d best start in the United States.

Mark Jones, editor, Discovery

導演Woody Al len全新推出的電影《奇幻摩天輪以》， 1950年代的尼康 島為背景。對於好幾代紐約人而言，這座布魯克林區人工半島上的度假村和大型樂遊場，是20世紀中葉美國享樂主義的，、、重鎮氣俗 廉價 繽紛而性感。「躁動一代」的詩人和小說家、從Lou Reed以至Beyoncé等音樂人，還有數十部電，影括本月在機上放映的Al len早期傑作《安妮荷爾》，均或多或少從這個地方獲得靈感。

我在1970年代初次前往康尼。島 那是我人生首次踏足美國國土，抵埗當天陽光猛烈氣，天 炎，熱 令人頭暈眼花之餘還汗方 浹我背。 當時是個情緒化的小伙子，時差令我情緒更低落。那時的尼康 島跟紐約市其他地區一樣，變開始 得有點髒，亂過不仍有一分令以人難 抗拒的魅力。

那樣的地方總是有其魅力的。記憶中的沙丘、雪糕、過山車和海濱咖啡室色彩鮮明艷麗，相比之下，日後我們長大後前往的景點雖然較為高雅，顯卻 得單乏調 味。

因此，我們請來多位閱歷豐富的旅人，從日漸褪色的度假記憶中，檢翻 出他們心目中的尼「康 島」──一個難忘的童年度假勝地。

我就們 從美國開始吧。

MarkJones， Discovery