Tricia Vita
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triciavita.bsky.social
Tricia Vita
@triciavita.bsky.social
Writer, oral historian, reminiscence facilitator, teaching artist. Former carny kid. Coney Island, carnivals, fairs, amusement business. It's the front of the show that gets the dough! Authors Guild member.
https://linktr.ee/triciavita
Happy #NationalRollerCoasterDay! I recorded an oral history for @coneyislandhistory.bsky.social with roller coaster designer Mike Boodley. Fifty years ago, he broke a world record riding the Coney Island Cyclone 1,001X in 45 hrs 🎢 www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history... @ridewithace.bsky.social
August 16, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Hit the Hammer, Ring the Bell! My article about the history of the high striker is published in the July issue of Amusement Warehouse, the print magazine companion to carnivalwarehouse.com. The strongman game inspired the phrase "close, but no cigar!" because a cigar was your prize if you won.
July 29, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Watching Coney Island's 4th of July fireworks on West 15th St thru the loop of Luna Park's Thunderbolt roller coaster 🎢
July 6, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Happy first Saturday of summer and Mermaid Parade Day! Photo from my carnival collection of diving girls from the Neptune's Daughter show with the Great Wortham Shows, 1917 season 🧜‍♀️
June 21, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Dear NY friends, voting in the NYC Primary is June 14-24. Since I've worked in Coney Island for the past 18 years & all politics is local, I’m hyper-focused on the NYC Comptroller’s race. I'm ranking @marklevinenyc.bsky.social #1 for NYC Comptroller and won't be ranking @justinbrannan.bsky.social
June 14, 2025 at 3:01 PM
My favorite genre of sideshow banners, a word banner, is on the auction block today! But living in a small apt puts this 11.5 x 10 foot beauty beyond my reach. As banner collector Jim Secreto said in a piece I wrote about his collection: "If you've got to worry about the size don't get in the game."
May 22, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Excited to have my first piece in Amusement Warehouse, the print magazine companion to carnivalwarehouse.com. I wrote about Coney Island's WF Mangels' Whip, the first portable thrill ride. If you know of a show or park that still has a Whip in operation, please LMK. I'm updating my Whip Census!
May 1, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Has anybody played a Glass Pitch lately? Throwback to the one that was next door to my High Striker at the Big A Fair at Aqueduct. No Leaning, No Sticking Substance on Coins, No Chewing Gum on Coins, No Spitting on Coins.
#carnival #signage
April 29, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Enjoying this heavenly pastiera di grano from Pasticceria Rocco! My aunts on the Italian side of my family have been making grain pie for Easter for as far back as I can remember. They wouldn't share their recipe with mom, who was French American but learned to cook Italian after marrying dad....1/2
April 21, 2025 at 12:10 AM
My first ride of the season on the Wonder Wheel on Palm Sunday, Coney Island's traditional opening day ❤️!
Thanks to Robert Galletta for his photo.
April 13, 2025 at 8:42 PM
My memoir about working the spot joint for Benny Harrison on Jones Walk is published today in Gramercy Review!
"I didn’t go to Coney Island looking for the spot game. It found me. I’d all but given up my elusive quest to once again work my game of choice..."
www.gramercyreview.com/the-spot-joi...
April 11, 2025 at 2:11 AM
...along with artful new signage and chalk drawings by Stephen Gaffney saying "Hey Get It, Get It!" as Paul Georgoulakos used to call out to passersby. I had calamari and coffee. I highly recommend their lobster rolls, fries, and beer and mixed drink menu too. Now open daily, weather permitting.
April 6, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Paul's Daughter on the Coney Island Boardwalk, established as Gregory and Paul’s in 1962. It's delightful to once again see the beloved vintage signs for “Mr. Shrimp” & “Chiefito and Chiefita - the Nice N Sweet/Fluffy Cotton Candy Kids” painted by Hector George Wallace carefully preserved inside...
April 6, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Excited to announce that I'm a LMCC 2025 Manhattan Arts Grants Recipient! Thanks to Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's support, I will bring my reminiscence, oral history and storytelling workshop to an older adult center in Manhattan later this year.
#LMCC #CreativeAging #ArtsEngagement
March 27, 2025 at 8:02 PM
#Feminism lives! The Ten Women Bicycle, a feminist fable and my first ever pub, is a new orchestral work by June Bonacich and will be performed by Community Women's Orchestra. The Bay Area org is celebrating its 40th anniversary and my story was published in Ms. Magazine and as a book 45 years ago!
March 14, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Happy Valentine's Day from this former High Striker Girl! "I'm Strong For You" postcard from my collection of carnival ephemera.
February 14, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Career alert for carousel lovers: An RFP for the operation of SeaGlass Carousel, a very calming, otherworldly experience totally unlike any other carousel or amusement ride. Glowing fish change colors as they swim by in my video of its inaugural spin in 2015. www.thebattery.org/about-us/sea...
February 10, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Lula peeking out from the linen and silk clothes in my closet 😻

#caturday #catsofbluesky
February 8, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Happy New Year of the Snake, a time of transformation and growth! Throwback to Lion Dance at NYC Council Lunar New Year Celebration in 2019.
January 29, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Anyone else feeling the dynamics of personal transformation this week? This Metamorphosis sideshow banner was painted by my old friend Johnny Meah for the World of Wonders sideshow and is up for auction at Potter & Potter Auctions February 1st sale.

#sideshow #transformation
January 24, 2025 at 4:29 PM
#Throwback to an #OralHistory I recorded with Mort Shatzkin, who recalls #ConeyIsland's Tuesday night fireworks and Shatzkin's Knishes, his family's business on the Boardwalk in the 1940s and 50s. Full interview in coneyislandhistory.bsky.social archive: www.coneyislandhistory.org/oral-history...
January 16, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Here we go again trying to #SaveConeyIsland from Thor Equities! Please sign the petition against the casino at coneyisland.com/nocasino & scroll down the page for the contact info of @bkbpreynoso.bsky.social & @justinbrannan.bsky.social whose vote is coming up next. Deets in alt text #ConeyIsland
January 16, 2025 at 2:33 PM
FYI The location of the Jan 9 public hearing about the casino was just now changed from the Aquarium to the Coney Island Y, 2980 W 29 St. Bigger space!
January 6, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Last tiramisu and cappuccino of 2024 at the wonderfully named Travelers Poets & Friends in Greenwich Village.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
January 1, 2025 at 2:00 AM
On #NewYearsDay in 1943, folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote this list of 33 #resolutions. Some of my favorites:
1. Work more and better
2. Work by a schedule
13. Read lots good books
17. Dont get lonesome
18. Stay glad
19. Keep hoping machine running
20. Dream good
27. Help win war — beat fascism
December 29, 2024 at 11:16 PM