Nicholas Martorina, 9, was waiting in line at Kiddieland in Melrose Park by 8 a.m. this morning.

"I'm the first kid on the last day," the Chicago boy said as his father, Sam Martorina, waited nearby in the family's sport-utility vehicle.

By 10:15 a.m., with the gates scheduled to open at noon, about 20 people were waiting in line. But Kiddieland owners are expecting that number to swell to huge crowds as people say goodbye to the storied family amusement park.

Sam Martorina, who has been visiting the park since he was a child, decided at 5:30 a.m. that he'd bring his son out for the last day.

"I thought they'd be lined up for a rock concert," the father said of the sparse number of early arrivers.

Nicholas will be heading for the bumper cars when the gates open.

Cindy Vaile, 50, of Brookfield, was waiting in line with her daughter, Stacy Vaile, 25.
Sunday was their 17th visit to Kiddieland this summer.

Cindy has been coming since she was 3. Spent over 1,000 on tickets this year. Started coming really heavy.

"I'm sad, right here, it hurts," Cindy Vaile said, pointing to her heart. "I'm also sad for the little kids who won't be able to enjoy this."

There was a water park in Oak Brook that I loved. The name of it was something like Ebenezers flop and slop waterslide park.

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I think it is more greed to build condo's and more non essential big box stores, especially in that area.

It's greedy for a private land owner to choose to do something different with his land than what you want? I thought you weren't going to BS your daughter.

It would have been nice if the city could have come to some agreement....

Nice + Melrose Park = NO MATCH

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

Oct 4 is the final day.

not sure if the owners should be Douchebagged for not being able to reconcile their differences to keep the place open or for selling to highest bidders for the last rides.

Knowing how hard it is to get financing for anything these days in the commercial world, I am not sure they are making a wise move if they think a developer is going to really close on this.

The next shoe dropping in the economy is the commerical market. Office properties will be falling fast, with very little fan fare because it is not the heart felt media story a families home is, but they are expecting double the defaults on commercial loans in the year.

http://www.kiddieland.com/

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.