In this book Ed Gaida skillfully weaves a story starting in 1930 on Chicago’s North Side and ending in 1983 in the Alamo City, for a dual biography of Playland's Jimmy Johnson and the amusement park he created. For anyone who ever spent a Saturday at Playland Park -- or has wished they could have -- this book is the next best thing to a time machine.

-- Paula Allen, author of San Antonio Then and Now