When the Merry-Go-Round Museum in Sandusky, Ohio, was organizing in the late 80s the fashion was to describe the ride as merry-go-rounds. In recent decades ``carousel'' has become the classier word, for some reason. (Some have tried retrofitting a distinction between merry-go-rounds and carousels. Ignore them.) But they've stuck with the old name and made MGRM their logotype. So why, on the receipts from the gift shop this year, did they give the name of the business as the Museum of Carousel Art and History?
We don't know. It wasn't mentioned. From appearances that Halloweekends Saturday the Merry-Go-Round Museum was carrying on as it traditionally does. It was busier than usual for one of our visits, as a pack of a dozen or more people who all look like my mother's friends got there just ahead of us and were taking the guided tour. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger often remarks to me how she could give the tour, and there wasn't anything to this year that suggests she isn't still able. Possibly more able: the docent gave the impression that there's no brass-ring-game carousels operating anymore, when bunnyhugger and I have ridden on three of them, one as recently as four months before. Or the docent was simplifying for the sake of my mom's friends.
The crowd does seem like a good thing for the museum, though, which in our annual visits had seemed to be getting sparser attendance up to the pandemic. And there had been some word of a big part of their holdings --- on loan, as these things often are, from a collector's estate --- going back to the estate. bunnyhugger will make very clear whether they have or not. The floor itself seemed well-stocked with exhibits, some of them new or somewhat new to me. Maybe a better indication of the museum's health is the gift shop, which after a couple of skant years was stocked with plenty of stuff, including new back issues of merry-go-round trade magazines.
They also had, for what they say is the last time, raffle tickets for a carousel horse. This is the same one I had thought they were raffling off New Year's Day 2023, but apparently they've given the last horse one more year and this will be the last. Of course we hope every year to win but now if we win we'll have to hope the horse doesn't fight with bunnyhugger's rabbit.
The Merry-Go-Round Museum decorated for Halloween in a way I don't remember before. They got bunches of skeletons and many of them were riding the horses around the place. Fun bit. I hope this all suggests the museum's on an upswing.
On the drive back to Cedar Point --- which we feared would be packed, as Saturday was not quite as warm as Friday but it was still, like, low-50s, extremely comfortable weather --- we made a stop. This is because at 1538 First Street in Sandusky is a mysterious brick building that's fascinated us every time we drive past. It's your standard style abandoned industrial place, surrounded by empty fields. But a no-longer-working lighted sign atop the building and built into the brickface are light-colored U's, inset in a circle, speaking boldly of the building's history as having been at one time something. We've called it things like the Underdog Building and the Power U Building. After years of swearing we'd someday stop and get good pictures of it, this time, we did.
The building shows of its abandonment, with a lot of old, fractured glass windows and a front door that's just the plywood nailed into the back. (How did that carpenter get out?) It's a pretty attractive piece of industrial ruin and it so happens the empty lot adjacent is one that has a view of Cedar Point's skyline. But meanwhile this building sits there, metal shutters rusting and windows getting muddy and cracked, its only apparent remaining purpose being holding a sign painted in the brick pointing people to eat at Lyman Harbor, across the street.
bunnyhugger, using her documentation-sleuthing skills, found the story of the U Building. I forget what the U stands for, but it was, I think, an electrical parts company that went out of business in the early 2000's. So this building has been derelict a while, but not, like, from time immemorial. Just long enough to look lost forever.
On to something that doesn't lok a bit lost: Gilroy Gardens, and our ride on the Rose Garden Round Boats.
Looking ahead at this last stretch of pond before the return station. I think the white dome in the upper right corner is the mushroom swings ride.
There was some kind of backup at the return station, but that gave me time to notice and try taking a picture of the operator wearing the safety harness there.
So there's the people taking our boat after us. Also, a decent image of what the Gilroy Gardens park uniforms look like.
Looking on at another boat making the return to the station.
And here's a view from the bridge over the ride, so you can see a lot of boats ready to or starting to go.
Waterfall, one of many little ones around the park.
Trivia: In 1260 Venetian merchants built a ship with displacement of about 500 tons, the Roccaforte, and within a few years built another of the same size. In comparison the Mayflower, built centuries later, was only about 180 tons. Source: The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention that Changed the World, Amir D Aczel.
Currently Reading: Michigan History, January/February 2024. Editor Sarah Hamilton.
