When I try to answer the question, “What were the top three treat events you could hardly wait for and counted the days down to, growing up in NYC?”,
Right up there after Christmas, was my annual ish trip to the amusement park in Coney Island.  It was about a 2-hour commute from my apartment in Flushing, Queens NY. ( worth every minute)
The focus of our trip back then was Steeplechase Park, a specific destination within Coney Island, where most of the good rides were located.
Unfortunately, Steeplechase closed in 1964.   All that remains of that iconic amusement park is the parachute jump.  I, actually took my beautiful bride, Marjorie on the Parachute Jump while on our honeymoon in 1964. 

As I recall, ( remember. i’m almost 85 and memory could be fuzzy.) to enter Steeplechase you purchased a round,
punch card with a certain number of punchable places for rides.  The more rides the higher the admission
To enter you must go through the giant, rolling barrel. It was great fun and you would fall on your butt several times going through it ( until you learned how)

There were many crazy slides that you could try.  A favorite ride of mine were the mechanical race horses on the roof of the Steeplechase building.
In all, it made for a super fun day at a ( poor man’s Disney World)   Great memories of a wonderful time to grow up in the Big Apple.