Everything you’ll know if you’re from Kings Park

Kings Park: a small town located on the North Shore of Long Island. It’s not the most expensive town or the one with the best things to do, but it’s home and we love it. Whether you lived in KP for your entire life or moved here later on, you’re sure to be familiar with these things and spots that all Kings Park natives know and love (or despise).

The Bluff

The location of Senior Sunrise and Senior Sunset, where all the high school seniors gather together on the first and last day of school to celebrate a kick ass year. It’s also a great place to go boating, hiking, running, or lay out on the shore. Oh, and don’t forget Old Dock Inn, the old restaurant that overlooks the Nissequogue River, but people rarely go to. (Disclaimer: it’s actually not bad!)

Sunken Meadow

Our own “beach.” Notorious for its rocky shoreline, extensive boardwalk and nonexistent waves (it’s the Long Island Sound, not the Atlantic). Native Kings Parkers rarely come here for a beach day, but it’s a good fallback when you’re too lazy to make the trip to Robert Moses, just want to get some sun, or get a solid run in. And all Kings Parkers know to avoid this place during the three most popular times for visitors in the year: Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July and Labor Day weekend.

Anderson’s

Kings Park’s “mecca”. Basically, every Kings Parker has been there once in their life. Anderson’s is the hot spot for breakfast, lunch and dinner—as well as anything in between. Nothing says “Kings Park” more than a bacon, egg and cheese with a Half and Half. (The iced tea/lemonade combo… not the creamer, amateurs.)

Abundance of pizzerias and nail salons

We have about four of each in this town and whenever a building is open for rent, you can almost guarantee another one will be going in. Best part? DiNapoli’s 20” pizza and $7 manicures (you won’t beat that price anywhere else.)

Bagel King

Simply stated, our bagels are the best. Don’t try to convince a Kings Parker (or Long Islander, for that matter) that a Connecticut, Jersey, etc. bagel is better than ours. It’s not. That goes for pizza too!

Train station (that we never use)

Yeah, there’s a train station in our town that can get us to New York City, but we rarely use it. It’s not a direct line, so transferring at Jamaica doesn’t sound appealing to us. We’d much rather drive 15 minutes to Deer Park for that direct line into Penn Station. But hey, if worst comes to worst, the train station in KP is there!

Bakery

The Park Bake Shop is one of our most prized town possessions. Cannolis and Meltaways, anyone?

Celtic & Shanahans

The two most popular bars in town and the two places in town that you’re most likely to see everyone you know. And let’s not forget about Shanahan’s wings. Talk about perfection…

The awkwardness that is RJO

Not quite Elementary School, not quite Middle School. So what is RJO? An “intermediate” school, whatever that is. It’s purpose? Besides separating grades 4 and 5 into a separate building, no one really knows. But, what we do know is that EVERYONE joined chorus during those years because Adventureland. Need I say more? 

Christmas Parade

The highlight of the holiday season. The Fire Department’s annual Christmas parade through the neighborhoods of KP, along with the holiday parties, is what every Kings Parker looks forward to in December. Bring on the candy canes! (Bonus points if you get one from Santa!)

KPHS Crossing Guards

Oh, the torture of driving to high school. Besides the traffic light, every person who’s crossed 25A in order to park in the Senior Lot of the high school knows this struggle. There’s a person walking to school a mile down the road? Don’t worry, the crossing guards will most definitely hold up traffic for that person walking 0.5 MPH to cross the road so that you can be late for your first period class.

Otis Cookies

What a time it was to be alive when these bad-boys were sold in high school. Fresh, large, and warm chocolate chip cookies sold during seminar? Doesn’t get better than that. A big shoutout to Nick, Sasha, Vinny and Tyler for dealing with the chaos that was Otis Cookies. And unfortunately, the cookies have since taken a hiatus due to students stalking the Cookie Cart around the school.

The Psychiatric Center

Yes, Kings Park is home to an abandoned psychiatric center. It closed down in 1996 and since then, has been a place of mystery to everyone on Long Island. The people who don’t really care for it? Kings Parkers. It’s in our backyards, we’ve grown up around it. Sure, it’s cool to read about online or see photos of, but do we explore the empty buildings every day? No. So stop asking us about it and stop bragging to us that you went in one of the buildings. It’s old news. But, we can tell you about all the shortcuts through town using KPPC!

 

Lawn Guyland accents

“Oh, you’re from Lawn Guyland?!” No, we’re from Long Island. Half of us don’t acquire this accent, and the other half, well… Let’s just say that if you leave the island, you will 100% guaranteed get made fun of for the way you say “coffee”, “dog”, “water”, “talk”, and any variations of ‘talk’ (walk, chalk, etc.) But do we care? Not at all.

#strongisland