Jewel Hough

Jewel Hough lives in Brighton Beach and has been working at Coney Island's Deno's Wonder Wheel Park for the past 18 years. She started out operating rides in Deno's Kiddie Park and currently works in Deno's Sweet Shoppe. Jewel describes her favorite rides ("The Tilt-A-Whirl, I love it!") and the process of making cotton candy and candy apples. She says the part of the job she likes best and the reason she has stayed so long is her enjoyment of the big smiles on kids' faces and a fondess for the bosses and her fellow workers. "The workers come in. I met 'em they leave, I meet 'em they leave, but some of them always come back to see me. They call me 'Mama Jewel.'" Jewel also talks about learning to fish on the park's annual fishing trips, being flooded out of her basement apartment by Hurricane Sandy, and memories of visiting Coney Island with her family years before she came to work here.