Although merry-go-rounds or carousels are usually found at amusement parks and state fairs, the oldest platform carousel in the country, Flying Horses, is actually a permanent fixture in the charming town of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard where we’ve spent many idyllic summer vacations. (See Menemsha Sunset and Wishing for Rain on the Vineyard)
When our son was young we often took him to ride the carousel, but on more recent Vineyard sojourns Flying Horses was understandably no longer a regular destination. But a few summers ago we were back on the island and passing the carousel we decided to stop and watch the horses for old time’s sake.
As I stood watching all the parents and kids climbing on, one young family caught my eye. The tall and lovely mother was African-American, the handsome father was white, and their little daughter, like so many biracial kids, was strikingly beautiful with a head of tumbling dark curls, and probably no older than two.
I watched as the father mounted one of the horses holding the child on his lap, and the mother by chance came to stand right next to me.
The carousel began to move and as it circled around, the father pointed to where his wife stood waving, and the child grinned and waved back. Each time the carousel passed us, the child’s smile seem to grow bigger and bigger as she learned when to anticipate the sight of her waving mother.
Then as the carousel began to slow, the mother left my side and walked to where her family would be coming off the platform. But the carousel completed one more circuit before it came to a full stop, and as the little girl’s horse approached the spot where her mother no longer stood, I saw her smile fade and her lips quiver.
“Don’t cry, little one”, I wanted to tell her, “the mother and child reunion is only a motion away.”
– Dana Susan Lehrman
Dana Susan LehrmanThis retired librarian loves big city bustle and cozy country weekends, friends and family, good books and theatre, movies and jazz, travel, tennis, Yankee baseball, and writing about life as she sees it on her blog World Thru Brown Eyes!
www.WorldThruBrownEyes.com
So sweet!!!! You were so tuned into the child’s emotions, the joy and the anxious searching. The reunion was doubtlessly joy doubled. A perfect tribute to Paul Simon.
Thanx Khati, it was such a poignant moment that only I saw!
I know that carousel so well, Dana. As you say, the oldest still-functioning one in the country with real wooden horses (and horse hair), kept in ship-shape condition by the Preservation Trust, which owns so many of the historic sites around the island. I, also, spent long hours online waiting for a turn so my children could try to grab the brass ring.
The moment you capture is lovely and poignant and does, indeed, do justice to the Paul Simon lyrics. This is a beautiful vignette.
Thanx Betsy, Flying Horses is a delight, the photo is a souvenir tile I bought there years ago.
And indeed the little scene I witnessed was a poignant moment captured in my memory!
How lovely, Dana, with all the sweet emotions of carousels and childhood!
Thanx Marian, sweet is the word!
Dana, a perfect story for this prompt! I love that the Paul Simon lyrics came into your mind as you saw the little girl with her quivering lip. That’s the kind of thing that always happens to me!
Yes Suzy, that’s one lyric we both understand!
Beautiful story, Dana. Glad you stopped by the Flying Horses to witness it.
Thanx Laurie, it was such a sweet little moment!
Absolutely wonderful, Dana! Your featured image shows that Flying Horses dates from 1876. Certainly the oldest by a long shot. But I grew up in Binghamton, NY and the Triple Cities of Binghamton, Johnson City and Endicott: they bill themselves as the carousel capital of the world with seven (count ’em) scattered through the area. There was a grand one not far from me, growing up. Rides were free. A wonderful Wurlitzer-like one machine band. Seventeen years after I left the area I returned when my dad remarried, this time with my family and two young sons. I took them around to see the sights and headed to show them where the merry-go-round “used to be”. As we pulled up I saw that it was still there. And operating. Taking my sons on it is a treasured memory. Thanks for evoking it.
Wonderful Tom.
May there still be carousels – real and metaphoric – in this sometimes not so joyous world!