What needs to be said about Wonderland Pier in Ocean City, NJ, closing

Man, this sucks.

This one hurts.

News broke Friday afternoon, right before a busy summer weekend down the shore, that Gillian's Wonderland Pier on the Ocean City Boardwalk is closing at the end of the season after 94 years.

94 years takes us back to 1930 — the year that the Mickey Mouse comic strip first appeared, astronaut Buzz Aldrin was born, the first red and green traffic lights were installed in New York City, and Kentucky Fried Chicken was established.

Also that year, David Gillian opened a Fun Deck at Plymouth Place and the Boardwalk in Ocean City featuring a Ferris wheel and a carousel.

For the nine decades that followed, generations and generations of families enjoyed time on the rides and amusements at the northern end of the boardwalk in America's Greatest Family Resort.

And now it's all coming to an end.

If you're like me, you took your daughter or son, likely at a rather young age, to Wonderland to ride the smaller rides inside the building. The carousel, the wooden boats, the firetrucks, those little race cars that fling around that small track, and that monorail that goes around the building. Those rides were their first experiences at an amusement park: the screams, the laughter, the flashing lights, the fun, the memories.

As they got older, they started going on the rides behind the building -- the Tilt-a-whirl,  bumper cars, and, of course, the giant Ferris wheel. Those bigger rides led to louder screams, louder laughter, brighter flashing lights, more fun, and much bigger memories.

And now it's all coming to an end.

There is rampant speculation online about why Wonderland is closing — your guess is as good as mine as to what the real reason is, but it really doesn't matter. We're losing a landmark. We're losing one of those places that's always just been there.

And once these places are gone, they never come back, do they?

Zaberer's restaurants come to mind as does Hunt's Pier in Wildwood, just to name a few.

Those days of coming over the 9th Street Bridge and seeing that Ferris wheel past the water tower sure sound like they're ending.

Those dancing lights have likely already flashed for the last time. They stopped working a few weeks ago.

The days of seeing those spinning W-O-N-D-E-R-L-A-N-D letters on the boardwalk are soon to disappear.

The screams of seagulls will soon be louder than the screams from the rides.

And who knows how much longer those on the sports fields at Ocean City High School will have one of the most iconic backgrounds in the state.

But we have a few more weeks to take that one last trip to Wonderland Pier. One last chance to make some memories and snap some pictures. One last chance to ride those rides. One more chance to be able to say "Do you remember going on those rides?" ten or 20 years from now.

Maybe go twice — once before Labor Day when the place is packed and again during local summer when it's a bit quieter.

A landmark at the Jersey Shore is about to fade into history. One that has been a part of thousands of families with millions of memories. Man, this sucks.