Grab your ticket and step into Playland: Greetings From Ocean City Maryland, Earl Shores’ lover letter to an amusement park and an Ocean City that no longer exists.

Feel the sun on your face and smell the Coppertone as you get ready for a shift in the long-lost Playland Amusement Park.

It’s the summer of 1980 and “Little Jeanie” and “Call Me” blare out of the park PA system just a little too often. Your blue Ocean Pacific work shorts are barely more than hot pants, but it’s your neon-yellow Playland polo shirt that sets you apart, identifying you as a “chosen one” – a ride runner in the park.

So you slide on your aviator shades to fend off the glare of the bay-reflected 65th Street sunset, taking a leisurely stroll around your ride to make sure it’s ready for whatever the night will bring. The only certainties as darkness falls is your break, and the off-the-books banana milkshake you’ll get from your roommate who runs the park’s Dairy Queen.

But what you don’t realize is, the park rides are all just weeks away from shutting down forever. This is fateful final summer of Playland’s existence.

Available from One Way Road Press in paperback and ebook formats.