Here's wishing you the bluest sky

I apologize for preempting both my Halloweekends trip report and the new-bunny trip report but there's even more breaking news to get to.

At the end of last Sunday, the end of our Halloweekends trip, we were getting a ride on the Kiddy Kingdom Carousel. The ride operator spotted us --- as the two unaccompanied adults lingering around the carousel taking pictures with real cameras we stood out --- and told us, ``You know, there's a rumor they're planning to sell this carousel.'' We did not know, no, and the idea was the biggest bolt-from-the-blue attack on happiness we've experienced in ages.

What to make of it? Could it happen at all? Well, in the wake of the merger Cedar Point any sort of selling off stuff is plausible. A carousel would be petty cash for the chain --- the Kiddy Kingdom Carousel, something like 100 years old, is a valuable one but the carousel market is nowhere near its 1980s peak --- but Cedar Point has got three carousels and a certain class of dingbat can't imagine why you would ever need a second anything. It's hard to imagine the Kiddy Kingdom without the carousel in it, but the area has gone decades without any major updates and we've wondered every year if this will be the one that sees it revamped. Selling the carousel would fit with a major refurbishment.

bunnyhugger spent several days searching for anyone else who'd heard the rumor and, with nary a peep, put out a request saying, basically, she'd heard this from the Lemon Chill guy but has anyone else heard anything?

Nobody seemed to hear anything that couldn't be traced back to her asking about it, at least, but then --- some rumors from the Ohio Expo Center, where the Ohio State Fair is held, came out. They have been, it's known, looking for a carousel to house permanently at the fairgrounds. The rumor the last few days is they've bought the Kiddy Kingdom Carousel. Which, as fates go, would be not-the-worst; worst would be the carousel being broken up and the figures sold off to collectors around the world. Taken intact to a place that's harder for us to visit is ... bad but tolerable (if they keep the figures intact, anyway). But, still ...

So, buoyed by the news that Cedar Point was extremely dead on Friday, we drove down yesterday for the last operating day of the season. (We don't know why they weren't open Sunday, but given the number of refreshment stands we saw not open despite the park being packed, I would infer they didn't have the staffing for it.) If this was the last day for the ride --- and, again, nothing has come up in the amusement park or carousel news and barely anything in rumors --- we were going to ride it.

The Kiddy Kingdom Carousel has four rabbits, an unusually large number for any carousel, part of what makes it historically notable. bunnyhugger's goal was to be sure she rode each of the four, which we managed by hanging around through the end of a ride cycle, then getting in line just after they closed the gate to check the passengers for the next cycle. Time-consuming but a sure way to get your pick. For the first time, somehow, we both noticed that each sweep of the carousel has a number above it; two of the rabbits are in number 6 and the others in number 14, right by the tiger.

bunnyhugger first rode the black-with-white-spots rabbit that's always been her favorite (and whose pattern, inverted, is roughly that of bunnyhugger's main character). And the guy from last week, during the safety check, told us ``you know, the ride's already been sold to the Ohio State Fair''. We weren't sure if he recognized us from last week and was continuing the conversation, or if he spotted us as likely carousel enthusiasts, or if he was just telling this to everybody who looked like they weren't a parent on the ride. No telling, although the sparseness of the rumor spread suggests he's not just telling everybody.

He only advised us the one time, and we only had him the one ride. But we did get in rides on all four rabbits. The last ride operator of the night fed the patrons a bunch of trivia questions about the carousel --- bunnyhugger got them all, except for the ``date of the carousel's carving'' because there are several answers and nobody's sure which one is right --- including the alleged names of various animals. The lion on the ride, for example, is supposedly Allen or maybe Alan. (I suspect Allen, for Allen Herschel, whose company made most of the rides other than the carousel in the Kiddy Kingdom.) bunnyhugger had heard that one before, so it may not be just the ride operator making up patter. The tiger is supposedly named Shere Khan, which is I guess inevitable but I would've liked William or Gustav (for Dentzel, whose company made the carousel). And the rabbits ...

Well, the black rabbit with white spots is supposedly named Spot. The grey rabbit beside them is Baxter(?), and I don't know how that came about. On the other side of the ride the tan-colored rabbit is supposedly named Caramel and the white rabbit, Marshmallow. I can't say any of these names seem wrong, just maybe not imaginative apart from Baxter.

The Kiddy Kingdom Carousel, with the rest of the area, closed at 10 pm so about 9:30 we got over there to session the ride. With things happening we were only able to get in two rides, both with bunnyhugger on the black rabbit. She had hoped to get at least one final ride in on the ostriches, her favorite class of animal there after the rabbits, but wasn't sure she would have time.

And if it does turn out --- as we hope it does not --- that the ride is going to wherever the heck the Ohio State Fair is? (Ohio York City?) Then bunnyhugger has the consolation of being the final member of the general public to ride the century-old Kiddy Kingdom Carousel on her favorite rabbit, a claim to obscure fame at least.

But we hope that next season we'll come to the park and the ride will be there and nothing of note will have changed apart from maybe having a plaque celebrating a hundred years of the ride and 57 years at the park.

---

Trivia: In 1886 Bill Watkins, manager of Detroit's National League team, crashed a meeting of the American Association to sound out whether the team might desert the National League for them, and cabled team owner Fredrick Stearns for authorization to make a formal bid for entry. Source: The Beer and Whisky League: the Illustrated History of the American Association --- Baseball's Renegade Major League, David Nemec. Stearns refused, as the National League had agreed to various concessions (that it reneged on), and the Detroit team went on to win the 1887 National League penant and ten of the fifteen games played against American Association leader Saint Louis. Nemec opines that Watkins's appeal was made to scare the National League into giving Stearns a better deal.

Currently Reading: Images of America: Lake Shore Electric Railway, Thomas J Patton, Dennis Lamont, Albert Doane.

PS: Aw, what the heck, consider Statistics October: In Which People Cycle Back to Having Had Enough of Me as a piece.