Loose Leaf Notes

Our trip up to Hull, Massachusetts, for a family cookout and to take my mother to Martha’s Vineyard was planned as a mix of vacation and networking for the meditation retreats that my husband Joe runs. It became a tour of carousels when, after an exquisite Irish dinner of “bangers and mash” and Guinness, we stumbled upon the Glen Echo amusement park near D.C. The park is well over 100 years old and features an elaborately designed state of the art 19th century carousel. With another carousel in Hull and still a third on Martha’s Vineyard Island, a theme had begun to emerge.

Unlike Paragon Park, the Hull amusement park I grew up with that was torn down in the 80’s, Glen Echo has been preserved and is now something of a museum to the era of bumper cars, fun house mirrors, and cotton candy. I felt like a kid again. I knew all the lingo. The word “Whip” (a classic amusement park ride of the past), spoken to Joe as we walked through the park, became like an “Open Sesame” command that brought the park to life when a park tour guide heard it as he passed and decided to give us a private tour, even though the attractions were closed for the day.

As a small girl riding the Paragon carousel (the last remaining remnant of Paragon today), I was transported into a magical place. The music was grand, and the fairytale spinning under the brightly lit canopy was all very real to me. The Glen Echo carousel is even more mesmerizing. It features not only carved horses and carriages, but lions, ostrich, giraffe, reindeer, and over-sized bunnies. Thirteen coats of paint were removed during the renovations, down to the lavish originals, which were then re-created, the tour guide explained as the organ music filled the round merry-go-round house.

He also showed us the ballroom where contra dances are currently held. I pointed and shouted with recognition when I saw where the bumper cars where. Getting in a bumper car brought back all the excitement and tension I felt as a girl anticipating and fearing the crash and burn of a head-on collision. After a tour of the park, Joe and I drove to a nearby Unitarian church for one of the largest Buddhist Sanghas (spiritual community) in the country to meditate and listen to a dharma talk on loving kindness. It was an unimaginable perfect start to a vacation. My kind of unplanned date night.