Roseland was a spectacular place to a poor country kid back in the 1960s, when I was growing up. Life on our farm could be hard at times, but there were these little oases ... like Roseland. Even parents loved it, because there was a picnic area under big old shade trees right at the lakefront, so mom and dad could relax with a beer and a hot dog while the kids ran riot on the rides. And the kids could cool off in the lake after working themselves into a lather all day, so by the time we all got in the car to go home, we were exhausted but relatively comfortable (if you can be comfortable with 12 pounds of cotton candy and hot dogs rolling around in your stomach) and very, very happy.My sister and I would spend our precious ride tickets on Skee Roll and the rest of the penny arcade games, like the scary mechanical fortune teller that spat out pathetically outdated "fortunes" with pictures of Flapper-era girls and slick-haired '30s gents; the ferris wheel, the Golden Nugget haunted house ride, and the evil bumper cars, where I always got myself wedged into a corner and spent the whole alloted time crying because I couldn't move (a metaphor for later life, perhaps!).
But the carousel was the best -- a child's dream, where she could ride a horse that wouldn't buck her off or nip her and that took her floating magically over the crowd, at every turn offering a naturally induced psychedelic multicolored-swirl view of hundreds of kids riding other rides and her parents proudly waving up at her from below. Who needed Timothy Leary when you had a fistful of Roseland ride tickets, a hot sunny day, and the makings of a good third-degree sunburn!
And then in the mid-1980s Roseland came to an end. The rides were dismantled and sold off and the developers rumbled in. Condos, that's what they replaced Roseland with. Bloody condos. Thus began my lifelong disgust with the bulldozer brigades and construction tycoons. But that's a topic for another day.
Anyway, imagine my delight when, on a one-day trip to Syracuse last week, I passed a sign for something called the Carousel Center Mall as I got off the Thruway. A little lightbulb in my head went *ding!* and I remembered that back in my nostalgia-shopping days of a year or two ago, I'd read that the Roseland merry-go-round had been resurrected in some mall in upstate New York. This had to be it!
And it was! I'm almost embarrassed to say that as I strode through Macy's and down endless garishly lit hallways toward the center of the mall where the carousel is housed, my heart beat a little faster as those memories of my many Roseland rides came cascading back. I must've looked like a woman on a mission to buy a new handbag, but what I was looking for so eagerly couldn't be manufactured or purchased in these soulless boutiques.
And then, a right turn down the food court, and there it was at the end of the strip of Arby's and mall-Chinese restaurants and even a Hooters -- there it glowed in her own special little glass pavilion! My carousel! Lighter and brighter than in my memory, but recognizably my childhood merry-go-round!
Of course I had to ride it. I paid my dollar to the grumpy ticket man (Dick Cheney's ne'r-do-well brother?) ...
and approached one of the gorgeous horses, but its size was daunting (how had I ever braved such a huge beast as a 6-year-old??) and I didn't fancy falling off and making a middle-aged fool of myself, so I just settled my well-padded rump into a painted chariot, along with a young mom and her anxious toddler. And then we were off.
Trying to take photos as we whirled around, I got dizzy (or was it the sheer excitement?). For a moment I closed my eyes and just relished the smooth gliding motion.When I opened them and gazed out the tall glass windows, for a few seconds the mall buildings disappeared and I could almost see my mom and dad way off in the distance, sitting in the cool grass at the edge of the lake, smiling as I rode around and around ...
Would you agree that it was a doubly magical mystery trip if I told you that as soon as I got back in my car to head home, the oldies station I had tuned in halfway across the state played Blood Sweat & Tears singing "Spinning Wheel"? Godshonest truth, I swear. Spooooky.
"Ride a painted pony, let the spinning wheel turn ... "Click here to learn more about this carousel's life in amusement parks since its creation in 1909 and about how it ended up gorgeously restored and parked in a mall. (I hate to say it, but developers were responsible for that, too.)
Click here to see more of the photos I shot that day.
And click here to find out whatever happened to David Clayton Thomas and the rest of the BS&T gang (you know you've been wondering).
Roseland Park PTC carousel number 18 Philadelphia Toboggan Company Carousel No. 18 vintage 20th century amusement park rides antique carousels Baby Boomers childhood nostalgia stock photos pictures Darlene Bordwell Stock Photography upstate New York state photographer
1 comment:
Memories!
I also rode this carousel (always called the merry-go-round) from a young age to when I was nearing 50. A friend of mine who spent summers working at Roseland in his older schoolboy years said it was the first ride to start up in the morning and the last to close down late at night, often with park workers. Many times adult riders outnumbered the kids.
The ride was also a treat for the ears. The ride began with s sharp "clang clang clang" of the bell. Then, as you circled around, the music from the organ with it's beating drums and cymbals would repeatedly build to a forte then diminish, followed by the whirring and crashing of the bumper cars, then the rat-a-tats of the shooting gallery.
In addition to the merry-go-round, my young friend was one of the few allowed to operate the Skyliner roller coaster which is now located at Lakemont Park in Altoona, PA.
I felt so bad when they closed Roseland!
Post a Comment