Music was playing and colorful lights illuminated the night sky on Wednesday as carousel lovers from across the country flocked to Mitchell Park in Greenport for a carefree ride. They came bedecked in carousel-earrings and pins, wearing shirts and jackets adorned in jewel-toned carousels, all united in their quest to catch the brass ring and create new memories.
Over 200 members of the National Carousel Association Convention met at the carousel for a ride on the 1920 Herschell Spillman, which was formerly located at the Northrup-Grumman plant in Calverton. Former Greenport Mayor David Kapell and local schoolchildren kicked off a campaign to bring the carousel to Greenport, transforming the area into a family destination, where the carousel, many say, sits as a “jewel”, in the center.
“This is a tremendous honor, and approximately 200 visitors involved in the NCA from the U.S. and Canada will gather in Greenport,” said Greenport Village Clerk Sylvia Pirillo, before the event.
Walking with cameras in hand, members of the NCA admired the beautifully carved horses and artwork on the carousel before lining up to take a ride.
NCA members came from all parts of the country, and described glowingly why carousels elicit such feelings of joy.
“I just feel free when I ride the horses,” said Janet Morrow, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “The artwork is beautiful,” too.
Rosemary Peck of Ashtabula, Ohio said she’s belonged to the NCA for 25 years. “We have so much fun,” she said; the group travels to a different destination to see carousels every year. This year’s trip included a visit to New York City and to other carousels in the area, as well as dinner at Claudio’s before the main event at the carousel. “I love the music; I just love carousels.”
Charles Crawford, of Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, said the NCA also raises grant money to help keep currently operating carousels alive with funding for necessities such as wiring; grant monies were awarded recently to Greenport. “We help keep carousels going,” he said.
Crawford said the NCA combined members’ love of carousels with the ability to see new places around the country. And , he said, when they ride the carousel, “We’re all kids again.”
The NCA even holds themed fundraising carousel events, such as a “Wizard of Oz” event held in Kansas last year.
The NCA’s youngest member, Angie Kramer, has been riding carousels since she was two; now, she’s 14. “I love them,” she said.
Mayor David Nyce thanked the Greenport carousel committee and gave a letter to NCA president Bette Largent; she awarded the village with a plaque of recognition.
“This carousel is a jewel,” Nyce said, who added that when he took office eight years ago, he though he’d be busy fielding issues such as infrastructure. He soon found that a majority of the calls he received concerned the carousel, Nyce said.
“This is what people remember, why they come back,” he said, adding that his mother rides the carousel whenever she visits.
Reflecting on why carousels touch her heart, Largent said she loves the art — and said the music and colors send her straight back to the innocence of childhood. “We weren’t allowed to ride,” she said. “My father didn’t like them so my mother would sneak us to the carousel. It was forbidden fruit.”
Greenport Village Trustee Mary Bess Phillips said the carousel is part of what created Mitchell Park and transformed it into the popular destination that it is, today.
Phillips credited Kapell’s “vision” and said he, along with the little children who wrote letters, “were the force” behind what brought the carousel to Greenport.
She also credited Nyce’s dedication to keeping the carousel comittee vibrant, with an eye toward maintenance and care for the attraction.
Perry White, visiting from Nags Head, North Carolina, said he and his wife Kaye became avid carousel lovers after the joined the fight to save Glen Echo Park’s historic 1921 Dentzel carousel, now in its 94th season in Maryland, still operating and completely rehabbed.
His wife, Kaye, who caught the brass ring, said riding the carousel “brings out the child in me. It makes all ages happy.”
Arlene Klein, who serves on the Greenport Village carousel committee, said one visiting woman, Agnes, gave her a pin, because both their names begin with “A”. The woman, she said, has cancer, but said she is choosing to live “her life to the fullest,” including a trip to the carousel, even though she is unable to ride.
Rita Sharkey, of HIcksville, said carousels are a family tradition. “They make you never grow old,” she said.
Marjory Steves, who serves on the carousel committee and has worked at the carousel “since the first week” has seen proposals and many, many newly married couples posing for their wedding photographs on the carousel.
Before she died, Stevens’ mother had planned to visit the carousel that next week, but sadly, never got to ride. Even in her sadness, Stevens said the laughter of children and the wonder in their eyes, along with the music of the carousel, made her smile. “People have special connections to carousels,” she said.
One woman, Stevens said, brought her own mother, 80, who’d had a hard life and done nothing for herself. Her bucket list of dreams included a ferry trip “and a ride on the carousel,” Stevens said. “She had never ridden a carousel before.”
Victor Brown, a carousel committe member said to a large extent, carousels “bring us back to a kinder, gentler time.” A time, he said, when a day out meant a ride on the carousel, and a picnic in the park. And that’s what we have here, in Greenport,” he said.
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