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Saturday, August 30, 2014

Earring 0181 Ferris Wheel and Merry-Go-Round

Today's earrings kind of reminded me of a Ferris wheel. I can remember the first time that I road the Ferris wheel. I wasn't very old but I knew that I wanted to go up as high as I could to be closer to the stars. It was night and the Ferris wheel was all lit up. Even though I had four older brothers, it was my dad who took me on the Ferris wheel. As my luck would have it, our car stopped on the top and I was on top of the world. I never wanted the ride to end. And I always wanted my dad by my side. Kind of kitty corner (or as some people say, katty corner) from the Ferris wheel was the merry-go-round. It's funny because I can remember then riding the merry-go-round with my sister. Each of us on our own horse. Dad stood between us but held unto my sister. My sister must have only been about two or three years old at that time. She was pretty small. Isn't it amazing that you can recall those kinds of memories and the feelings you had are like it just happened. What a wonderful ride.

Started thinking more about the Ferris wheel, which was made for the "World's Columbian Exposition" in Chicago in 1890; celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus discovering America. The first cars were huge. They were 24 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 10 feet high. The passengers, 38 to 60 per car, were protected by glass and screen. Like train cars, these cars had a conductor; one to each car. The wheel had at least 21 cars from what I could tell. George Washington Gale Ferris created the masterpiece to "compete" against the magnificence of the Eiffel Tower. The original Ferris wheel ended up in St. Louis. Can you imagine moving that much equipment in 1904.

Parick Mehan wrote a great article on the Ferris wheel and I've summed up some of it in the above paragraph. To read the article, you can find it at http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/newsletter.html. It's well worth reading because it goes into the details.

I can remember my first ride on a double Ferris wheel too but that memory doesn't bring any feelings like my first ride. The reason I remember it was because it was a "double" Ferris wheel.

For additional information about Ferris wheels, I liked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_wheel the best.