What goes around comes around....finding a happy memory.

I got an early Christmas gift today.   While cleaning out a drawer in the kitchen, working ever so slowly toward that de-cluttering of my life I’ve talked about, I discovered my gold fox head ring!    

Several months ago I rubbed my thumb on my left index finger, just as I’ve done for so many years, and my ring was gone.   It’s just one of those long standing habits you develop, and I was startled to find it was not there….I didn’t remember taking it off, but it was just gone. 

I bought the ring in August of 1991 as a reward for accomplishing a big goal, and to mark the event.  The year before I had been granted the gift of building the carousel in downtown Mansfield.   It was the most abstract job I’d ever tackled, and one of the most rewarding.   Always in love with the downtown, I was thrilled to be the first director of the project.  There was no real game plan, there was no instruction manual.   Basically I got a job title, the carousel building and a brown desk phone that sat on the cement floor.   I was now officially the person who would answer it.

At the time I walked into that building as the director the whole carousel project was very controversial.   I got the call on a Sunday that I had the job, and my husband and I had a cook out to go to that evening before it had even been announced.    I was talking to someone at that gathering when I heard the man behind me say, “I just saw the funniest bumper sticker.  It said, ‘Last one out of Mansfield, Turn off the Lights off on the Carousel’. “   I turned to meet him, tapped him on the shoulder and said, “I’d like to introduce myself.  I’m Diana Coon and I’ll be turning off the lights on the carousel.”   He proceeded to tell me why it would never get built, and why I should start looking for another job… pronto.

I listened, not at all sure that he might not have a point, and I told him I’d give him the first ride on that carousel when I got it built.   Eventually he got that ride, and he was such a good sport he wrote me a check for $500.00 to support the project.    

I did a lot of talking to groups during that time, trying to change opinions and gain support.  In one  such speech, I talked about my wish to see rocking chairs around the carousel for people to sit in to watch the children, listen to the music, or just relax.   Someone from the telephone company, Sprint at that time, called me and said they wanted to raise the money for the chairs.   Through 'dress down Fridays' and bake sales and donations, they did.   I had brass plaques put on the rockers to acknowledge the groups contribution.  The chairs are still there today, and I sat in one, rocking my granddaughter, not long ago.   I'm sorry to say I simply don’t remember the names of all the people who were so kind and worked so hard to make the Carrousel Park the place it is today, but I’ve never forgotten one of their faces or what they did to help.  

 Since this was the first hand carved wooden carousel to go up in the country in the last sixty years, it wasn’t possible to pick up the phone to ask someone, “So what did you do when you built YOUR carousel?”  I haunted the library for several weeks, putting together an idea of what I thought needed to be done.  I talked to everyone who would talk to me, and gratefully accepted all the help I could get.  Through books from the library I discovered the old carousels had used tokens, and  I wanted Richland Carrousel Park to have them too.  Eventually I found out who manufactured the tokens for the New York City subway system, and they did the original tokens for our carousel.    It was a wide open challenge, and I loved every minute of it.

So, it was twenty years ago this summer that I bought this ring.   It marked the completion of the carousel project for me, and every time I look at it I am reminded of that time and how proud I was at that grand opening.  It was a lot of very hard work, and my husband and children supported me every step of the way. 

All these years later the carousel that no one thought would last is still going round and round.   I love being downtown in the summer when the doors are up and the happy, tinkling music fills the air.   I remember the day that organ was installed, and the day the center pole went up,  the work crew who built it, and the challenges that so many people met to get it completed.  

And so, my early Christmas gift was finding this ring today, long after I had accepted the fact that it was gone.    I’m delighted to have it back on my left index finger where it belongs, and I am thankful for the happy memories it carries.  I also know I am a very lucky woman to have both…….Life is Good.