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Converted from paper version of the Broad Ripple Gazette (v07n09)
Random Rippling - The Broad Ripple Park Carousel and its Conductor by Carol Blatter
posted: Apr. 30, 2010

The Broad Ripple Park Carousel and its Conductor
by Carol Blatter
part three (end)
One of his sisters arranged for him to live with her. Within a year, the conductor contracted pneumonia and died. His funeral was sparsely attended. A few surviving family members attended. Some neighborhood families came, those who knew him from the carousel. The pastor gave a brief eulogy. He was buried in his garden, near a large shading red maple tree, behind his modest bungalow in the small, white frame family home he grew up in and later inherited. This was his final homecoming.
It was the conductor's finale,
his last hurrah. Au revoir.
The lights lowered, the music stopped.
Rides and riders no more.
He took his final bow
at the carousel.
After a combined seventy-two operational years of carousel rides, or almost three-quarters of a century, from its beginnings in Broad Ripple Park, to its second home in the Indianapolis Children's Museum, the carousel which opened to the public in 1976, is still operational today. The carousel provides the same joy, year after year, from generation to generation. Not only have carousel conductors come and gone, but the city of Indianapolis has grown and changed, as well. From a fairly quiet, quaint state capital and mid-west city, informally called "Naptown" by out-of-towners, especially residents of big east coast cities and Chicago, its large, metropolitan neighbor to the north, it has evolved into a bustling, sophisticated city with many high quality museums, professional theater, upscale restaurants, art galleries, parks and playgrounds. It also takes special pride as a sports capital with a huge downtown sports arena and it is the home of the Indiana Pacers and the Colts. Hoosier spirit cannot be emulated.
And Broad Ripple Village has also changed. It is filled with quaint stores, fancy restaurants, and art galleries. It retains its beauty with many mature trees, black cherry, butternut, blue ash, red maple, and sycamores, and maintains pristine streets lined with pretty, modest cottages and bungalows. Today, the Monon Trail, a walker's delight, winds its way through Broad Ripple and other nearby areas. The White River and the canal help to retain what is beautiful and also quaint here. And people of all ages, from infants to the elderly, singles, groups, and families, come to feed the ducks and have a quiet afternoon mingling with nature and enjoying respite from busy days. Maybe people will leave behind their cell phones, pagers, iPods, and just look at the ducks and people watch. Maybe not.
Today's Broad Ripple Village demonstrates the unique blend of the newer and more sophisticated way of life with the older, quieter, more relaxed lifestyle. It's hard to picture that in this small village, along the White River, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was one of the world's largest swimming pools, a popular and crowded bathing beach, rental boats, and in the amusement park, a mega-sized roller coaster, a water slide, and a scenic railway. And the park maintained the carousel which miraculously survived many years of use, despite adverse weather conditions, was later re-built, and still has the original animals made before 1900. It is a tribute to those great visionaries in Indianapolis who had the foresight and wisdom to save the animals and the remains of the original carousel for later generations of children to enjoy. Fun, plain old fun, that's what they come for.
So much for Naptown and the Indianapolis of the past. The carousel is still a reminder of what once was and continues to be a place of joy for children and families. And may the carousel rides continue while the happy faces of children radiate joy without end.

Carol Wechsler Blatter



alan@broadripplegazette.com
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