Friday 28 November 2008

Happy Times



Yesterday I went to the fairgrounds, known as the PNE, to have a look-see. Playland is closed for the season but I nosed around until I was asked, nicely, to leave lest I get run over by a forklift or something fell on my head. 

The helicopter ride is getting an overhaul. It's sobering to realise that I may have ridden in one of these 50 years ago. As I'm sure most of us know, this is the ride where the kids can make the helicopter go up and down as the ride goes around. Lot's of fond memories from Playland. 

I got other shots and I'll keep them in storage until I get desperate for something to post. 

8 comments :

Frankie / Nick said...

How are they!! Such happy faces, a great photo to look at on a grey day. Very nice.

Virginia said...

What fun! i would like to see you in one of those Copters W, reliving your childhood. Something about them reminds me of that dwarf at Disney, especially the bottom photo. Oh dear, better run phone my shrink!

Virginia said...

I'm LOL> I know which one you would NOT have tried to take but I'm not telling.

My daughter is in Iowa visiting her grandmother. My grandson is up there playing with John Deere toy tractors. Lordy, I'll bet you would kill to join him.

Laurie Allee said...

I am totally digging that demented looking one in the last shot!

I love this ride. I want to ride it right now.

Benjamin Madison said...

I don't remember this ride but I like it, especially the little guy at the bottom with the wicked expression. I still have a caricature of myself I got at the PNE in 1958. A few years earlier I worked at the Hastings Park Race Track as a hotwalker (and I'll be very surprised if anyone knows what that is.)

Wayne said...

I wandered in to the track the same day I took this shot. I hadn't been inside the grandstand since my granddad took us in as kids. No races, it was pretty dead except for a few guys gambling by TV or whatever it was they were doing.

I know diddly about horse racing but I've heard of hotwalkers. I'm going to take a guess that the horse has to be walked after the race to cool down before going back to the stables. Or it's something completely different.

I've got one of those big red buttons with the white bar with my name on it from the fair.

Benjamin Madison said...

Wayne, you're the first person I've met who knows what a hotwalker does. Your idea is exactly correct.

Wayne said...

No one is more surprised than me at the knowledge I have absorbed over the years.

Of course almost none of it is of any practical use.