Getting to Cass County, Indiana, isn't very different from getting to Indiana Beach to start. Basically drive down I-69 and turn right at Fort Wayne. The last ten miles are a maze of neighborhood roads in Logansport; while the Cass County Carousel is in a public park it's got all the appearance of a neighborhood park that happens to be cooler than your neighborhood park is. This is because it's gathered together stuff, some of it from nearby amusement parks or family fun centers that have gone the way of all mortal things. For example, it's got a narrow-gauge miniature railroad that was not running while we were there (and that we wouldn't have been allowed on anyway, being unaccompanied adults). Also a miniature golf course, which we would have played if we thought we had the time for it.
The carousel is in a nice custom-built building, with roll-up doors on three of the four sides. (The fourth side has offices and, better, bathrooms.) It's got a lovely sunny setting, plenty of space, and chairs and benches looking at the carousel for people who just want to watch it going by. Also a National Historic Landmark plaque dated 1987 so you can see the town has some pride in it. (That said, Wikipedia does report a 2017 attempt by a Toronto consortium to buy the carousel for Ontario's use, but that deal fell through.) It's got rows of bricks with engraved names outside it, people who'd contributed to the carousel's shelter and preservation and restoration. It needs a good deal of preservation; the carousel --- as mentioned, a Gustav Dentzel --- is so old it predates the mechanisms to make horses go up and down.
We quickly attracted the attention of the elderly guy who was working the ring machine. This is a bag of rings, loaded into the arm and swung out for people on the outer row of horses to grab, with the arm retracted the moment the brass ring is secured, something that threw us the first time we rode. We're used to, so far as we can be used to a thing that barely exists anymore, the model at Knoebels and Gillian's Wonderland Pier where the arm stays out the whole ride even if nobody can grab a brass ring for a free ride anymore.
We cannot know why the guy fingered us as people who might like to get the history of the carousel and its location in the park explained to them, or who'd like to have a tour of things in the building like the toy carousels built in a corner or the signs full of handprints (cheap fundraisers) or such. Possibly he does this to everyone who doesn't run away fast enough. Possibly he suspected that two adults without kids but with substantial real cameras (well, a ten-year-old point-and-shoot from me; a camera with interchangeable lenses from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger) walking around the whole carousel taking pictures from every angle might just be enthusiasts or something. In the event, he was right.
And so we got to enjoy a docent's tour of the ride, including a couple Dad Jokes that I no longer remember precisely. I do remember trying to talk about how impressed I was that the giraffe carving looks like a giraffe; we've seen carousels from the Golden Age that suggest the carver didn't have much reference material. He didn't understand my point and went on to talk about the artistic skill going into the carving.
He also gave bunnyhugger a token for a free ride, a greenish-brown plastic chip the size of a half-dollar. He also explained how the colors of the chip changed every year, usually reflecting the colors of a school --- elementary, high school, or college --- in the area, and that there are people who go out to collect the variety of free-ride tokens. We'd be among them, certainly. And then what should happen on our second (paid) ride but that she grabbed the brass ring, improving her record at grabbing these at the carousels that offer them. (I don't remember if she got one at Gillian's Wonderland Pier, but she is almost expert at getting them at Knoebel's.) Almost right away the other ride attendant hopped on to take the ring back --- they must be snagged for souvenirs a lot --- and give her an earned token, in circumstances that left bunnyhugger feeling like she couldn't explain that she already had one.
Getting back out of Logansport, Indiana, was a labyrinth no less confusing than getting in. We would have some cause to regret how long we spent there, as it took time away from Indiana Beach. But --- goodness, what a day and what an unexpected delight in the guy from the board-of-trustees being there and pigeonholing us as people who wanted to hear all about the carousel. We were there the right day, unless it turns out he's like this with everybody.
And now, let's close out Halloween at the hipster bar, and see the last of Velveteen's general public debut.
Velveteen got on stage too, but didn't make it past the first round of costume-contest audience voting, losing to ... I want to say some video game character.
The voting public included people who were in costume but weren't so confident in their suits. Also, lot of kigurumis going around these days. (I was in my red panda, I believe it was.)
Wait, wait, stop a moment. Velveteen has something important for you to see.
Now we're going to make a flip book, all right? Here's the first image ...
And here's the second. Enjoy!
And with that done, Velveteen prepares to hop off into the night. Also into her most dangerous feat yet: going down the stairs in suit.
Trivia: The three gold medals the United Kingdom won in the 1948 London games were in rowing and sailing, events not staged in or near London. Source: Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement, Editors John E Findling, Kimberly D Pelle. Wikipedia tells me the rowing was done at Henley-on-Thames and sailing at Torbay.
Currently Reading: Miscellaneous comic books I picked up a couple weekends ago at the bookstore next to the hipster bar.
