Reach out and grab the brass ring
I’ll admit it, I was a little happy to see this in the UT this morning. As much as I hate the place at times, I’m glad they’re getting talked about (and come on, the article totally makes the Balboa Park Carousel look way cooler than the one in Seaport Village, the title doesn’t even pertain to the Seaport Village Carousel).
In the eight+ years I’ve worked there on and off business has dropped a lot and a lot of things have changed. Although the kids (and many of the adults) still get just as excited as they always have. It’s really cool to see people that continued coming to the carousel throughout the years. Kids and parents I met eight years ago that come back every once in a while now and they’re all grown up, its kind of strange and makes me weirdly sentimental, but I guess I’ve never experienced something for so long to see changes over such a time period.
Of all the people I’ve met there over the years, the one that stands out is Charlie. I don’t know when he first started coming around, but he would often bring us candy, he was pretty old when he first started coming around, and continued for a few years. He was a strange guy at first, he’d come up, give us candy and chat, but soon we realized something was up. It turns out he had Alzheimer’s disease, and over the years we saw it progress and his mental states change. He was a really interesting guy though, he told us stories about the war (in the way that only old men can tell you stories about “the war” that make you a little nostalgic and a lot thankful), he used to give us cassette tapes, with military marching music on them that he claimed were written for him. I never listened to one of the tapes, I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d find on it and decided I liked the story he told and didn’t want whatever was on the tape to effect the way I perceived the story. After a while when he came by he would always be with a caretaker, once or twice his wife came with him. They would just sit there and listen to the music and watch the ride go by. Every once in a while the caretaker would come by alone, a little rushed and ask if we’d seen Charlie recently, that he was missing and they hoped he’d come by the carousel, it always gave me a scare, but then he’d turn up just as usual the next week. He stopped coming by after a while, and I never heard anything else about him. He’s probably the most interesting person I met there, but not the only one.
The carousel has been a great on and off job over the years, every time I leave town for a while and come back broke with no money I just call them up and am working the next week, getting paid pretty decently for the work, and reading books all day. My coworkers and I joke that you never actually quit the carousel, many of us leave and come back every once in a while, one friend has been doing it longer than I, living in the bay area most of the year but spending the summer working at the carousel and travelling. It’s not a bad gig but I think I’m reaching the end. I’m tired of working six days a week and just want to enjoy my time in San Diego before moving in the fall. I’m sure I’ll work there a bit this summer, but maybe that will be it….
And any rumors you may have heard about me getting fired for drinking on the job are entirely untrue!
