Tale Revised Blog #4 09|21|14

       We started to walk into the old amusement park. It was raining slightly and much colder than it had been all week. I couldn't feel my fingers by this time so I wasn't doing much for my writing. We walked across the darkened, cracked pavement. There were still leaves from the following fall scattered about, swishing around in the chilly breeze. I walked up the path that led to what seemed like a ticket booth. It was faded in color and all the windows were closed. It seemed so unloved. That would've been one of the busiest places when the park was open. It would've of always been surrounded by people, excited to buy tickets so they could experience the park. On the sides of me where closed down building where they may have had games or food. It was eerie to think that at one point and time little kids would've been running around with the toys they had won or the snacks that they had gotten. The children would be holding pink, fluffy cotton candy in their hands and a studded bear in the other. They would be holding on to these items for dear life because that was what was most important to them at the moment. Their parents would be chasing them through the park and laughing at all the different antics these little ones would be doing. This place was magical for children once. The little kids would be yelling, "I want to go on this ride Mommy! Please! Please! Please!" This place used to be alive for a different generation. It used to breathe in all the activity, all the enjoyment. It survived because people loved it. And now, it seemed so lonely, so dead.
      When we had made it to Kiddyland, two maniacal, terrifying clowns were there to greet us at the entrance. Their faces were chipped and faded. The white paint that created their facade now had a yellow tint and dirt stains. All the color had been washed out. Kiddyland didn't seem welcoming anymore, it seemed guarded by these two mutants of the past. But, I continued to walk in, not sure of what I would find. I stepped in and looked about what was left. The weather was most definitely making things seem dreary, but Kiddyland didn't need to the weather for that effect. The park seemed tired. Tired of being unused and alone for so long. I look to the boat ride; it was rusted and had green and brown tinted water at the bottom. Rust crawled up the side of the box and old leaves and pennies were disintegrating at the bottom of the pool. It had a foul smell as well. Rusty boats and algae filled water was the smell of its decay. I continued to walk to find there was this classic wooden Merry-Go-Round there as well. It was absolutely stunning and in its prime would've been bright and colorful. It would've been making its rounds and playing music while children laughed and rode their horses. It would've attracted many little ones to ride. It would've been so enticing and hard to resist with all its character and design. Now, it was rotten and wood was falling from the ticket booth. The mirrors were warped in the center piece and it looked like something that would be haunted by hundreds of ghosts. I walked around it trying to take it all in. It felt so sad and alone with no children to play on it. I can't imagine how the ride would feel if it could talk. So abandoned, so destroyed. I looked acorss and noticed a roller coaster in Kiddyland. It didn't look like it could hold a small child let alone multiple children. It was cold, rusted metal. Nature was taking control again and vines and plants were starting to creep up on the tracks. The plants were hanging off and made for a beautifully, sad sight. It would have had to have been left by itself for awhile to have let nature reconquer. I realized though, all of these rides have been abandoned a long time ago. All they had now were their ghosts.
      I was trying to imagine the entire time I was walking, what these rides would've been like to children when Kiddyland and Conneaut Lake Park were in it's prime. How colorful and inviting it probably all was. The sounds of the park, little kids laughing, all the different music playing from the rides, the rhythmic sounds of rides running and working. It would've been a beautiful symphony all on its own. It is sad to think how much of that has changed. Now Conneaut Lake Park is just a shell of what it once was. Now its used once a year for a haunted house that comes around every fall and its the perfect location for it. It's really all the park could be used for now. These rides and the chipping colors of it's past belongs in the memories of some people. That's where the real Conneaut Lake Park resides now. The one that was full of life and enjoyment. The one, that had children that yearned every summer for a visit. The one that people came from all around to visit. Now, what I was seeing was simply skeleton of something that was once so alive and thriving.