Join me at "Carousel for a Cause", June 13th at Santa's Village Azoosment Park!

https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/523507984351436/



I couldn't be more honored, pleased and humbled.  On June 13th, I'll be part of the festivities at "Carousel for a Cause", a benefit for a variety of charitable organizations, being held at Santa's Village Azoosment Park in East Dundee, Illinois.

From the Facebook event page:

"Join Santa's Village Azoosment Park on June 13 for a special reveal of the thirty unique and antique carousel horses re-painted by resident artist, Dutch Akers, and six historical replicas decorated by local, not-for-profit organizations. Each organization participating has a connection with either children or animals, which are both such a vital part of the park.

Organizations participating in this artistic event include: Andersen Animal Shelter (South Elgin), Boys & Girls Club of Rockford (Rockford), Clearbrook (Arlington Heights) March of Dimes Northeast Division (Joliet), Operation North Pole (Des Plaines) and Willowbrook Wildlife Center (Glen Ellyn).

We hope to see you at the celebration, and be sure to check out the event photo album for more information on each of the charitable organizations!"

What's really nifty about my participation is that I'll be signing copies of my book there and be donating half of all proceeds to the above organizations.

Please get your tickets NOW! It should be a magical, memorable event.

Listen to My Most Recent Radio Interview on WCNS THIS Saturday morning ONLINE!!!

The jaunty chef guy who oversees the making of the Potato Patch fries at Kennywood

Mike Krcil is a rock star (figuratively speaking), an award-winning broadcaster, and a really great guy.  What makes him a rock star is that he asked to interview me for my book, helping to get the word out about it in the Greater Pittsburgh area (where a chunk of the parks I visited reside) and hopefully getting folks interested in doing their own vintage amusement park road trips.

So make a nice latte, cozy up to your computer, and give the interview a listen THIS SATURDAY (that's tomorrow, May 18) at 9:30 Eastern.  You can do so by clicking on this link at the appropriate time:

http://1480wcns.com/talkblock.htm

It's part of the Saturday Talk Block on 1480 WCNS.  Mike and I chat about Western Pennsylvania parks like Kennywood and Idlewild, and I also give some hints about parks to visit in other regions of the U.S.  And at the very end of the 30-minute interview, I give out a holler about how YOU can help save a vintage park in peril, the awesomely historic Rye Playland.

Take some time and tune in tomorrow!!!  Your soul will smile.

Santa's Village Azoosment Park 2013 Opening Day is Mother's Day!!!

Part of my job as a Vintage Amusement Park Maven includes trolling around Facebook throughout the day, lurking to find exciting information for my fellow vintage amusement park enthusiasts.  Well, here's a doozy for Northern Illinois park fans!  Copied from their Facebook page, the great folks at Santa's Village Azoosment Park say:

"2013 Grand Opening on Mother's Day May 12th ... Mothers on that day will be admitted FREE when accompanied by 2 full paid admissions. Hope to see all you Mothers out at the park on May 12th for a fun filled day to kick off our 2013 Season! ~ Jason & Don"

Folks, get yourselves out to this super East Dundee park!  The owners have been hard at work, adding even more rides and attractions in the past few months.  You recall the park was closed for years and sat dormant.  If you've been paying attention in the slightest to my mad ramblings, you also know this park has "adopted" a few of the iconic Kiddieland rides after that park closed.  All in all, Jason and Don are creating vintage park magic: bring back the nostalgic past and enriching the experience with the fresh and new.

It's not every day that a park essentially left for dead rises up again and comes back better than ever.  Santa's Village Azoosment Park is a miracle, incorporating rides, shows, animals, and attractions in one fun place!!



santasvillagedundee.com

A link to an article from last year I was proud to have been a part of:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-santas-village-amusement-park-20120814-001,0,6030321.photo

Chicago Tribune article about Santa's Village Azoosment Park - and a bit about "The Cotton Candy Road Trip"!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-santas-village-amusement-park-20120814,0,6360507.column

I'm so excited I could leap over candy canes, spin around the North Pole, and make a general spectacle of myself in front of Santa Claus himself!

Last month, Chicago Tribune feature writer Steve Johnson interviewed me at Santa's Village Azoosment Park in East Dundee, IL as part of an article about the resurgence of this beloved area vintage park.  I've been holding my breath for weeks now, but I can finally report the article is out and it's fantastic!  It features interviews not only with me but, even more importantly, the park's general manager Don Holliman, and Phil Wenz, who helped revive the park and compiled an Arcadia Publishing "Santa's Village" historical picture book!  And, I just learned, a writer named Christopher Dearman self-published a book called "Santa's Village Gone Wild!" comprised of stories from the folks who worked there over the years!

Azoosment Parkpalooza!!

Enjoy the article and make sure you pay Santa's Village Azoosment Park a visit this season!

Got interviewed by the Chicago Tribune today at Santa's Village Azoosment Park!!

My beloved Mangel's Roto Whip, which dates back to 1948.

You know what's big fun?  Getting to revisit a park from my book, while being interviewed by Steve Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.  The managers of the park walked through the park with us, filling us in on some of the historical facts about the park in question, Santa's Village Azoosment Park in East Dundee, IL.

It really takes a very special kind of person to run a park, an even more special sort to reopen a park that had been closed for years.  Such was the case with Santa's Village.  It sat dormant and desolate for five years and most of the Chicagoland area left it for dead, until these wonderful folks swept up the debris, put it to rights, brought in some gentle animals, and reopened it back in 2010.  I visited in September, 2011 for the book and was heartened that it was truly as sweet as I recall it was when I thrilled to visit it as a child.

The 2012 season brings with it even more fun, as an antique car ride has opened in what used to be a picnic grove area.  The folks at SVAP are really doing a great job with expanding and growing this historic park, and they promise even more to come, like an old-school, walk-through fun house!

Today, right before my interview, I was photographed by the Tribune staff photographer.  She thought it might be fun for me to sit in one of the Roto-Whip cars, since mentioned it's a ride rescued from the dearly-departed Kiddieland.  Well, sit in one of the cars I did, and let me tell you: my 5'8" frame never felt SO LARGE!  Goliath even!  She snapped away and then the miraculous happened: the kid manning the ride asked the manager if it would be okay for me to realize a little dream I'd had since seeing the resurrected ride almost a year ago:  would it be okay for this 150 lb. human to actually ride the ride?

Yep - I got the green light and the ride operator let the Whip RIP!  This teeny Whip packs a surprisingly good little snap!  I waved at the photographer and ride operator, just like I waved at Mom and Dad over forty years ago.

Yes, it was a very good day.

Santa's Village Azoosment Park opens for the 2012 season May 13!

Here I am, sitting on one of the park's enchanted, gigantic mushrooms last season.

I just love this sweet, family-friendly park, out in the western Chicago suburb of East Dundee.  What makes it even more fun is that the owner has rescued two of the iconic Kiddieland rides and  placed them in his park to delight more generations of kiddies!  The park was closed for years, re-opened last year, and has new surprises in store for this year!

Here's a link for the park's new commercial:

http://www.santasvillagedundee.com/video.html

Take the kiddies on May 13th (Mother's Day)  and have a ball!

A St. Nicholas Day Treat: visits to Santa-related vintage parks!

Thinking of St. Nick brings me to a couple of my Cotton Candy parks, winds me down the road to their entrances, and lets me recall their gingerbread goodness - even though some were visited in the deep, dark Summer.

Santa's North Pole Workshop, right at the foot of Pike's Peak in Colorado, is the quintessential Christmas park year 'round, 24/7, through and through...

And nowhere else, as far as I know, can one ride an actual reindeer-go-'round!  That's me and Rudolph.

You can sidle up to the actual North Pole...

And then there's the candy cane slide, the same one I slid down as a pipsqueak back in the late 60s...

still thrilling taller pipsqueaks in the present day.

More recently, Ben and I had the immense pleasure of visiting Storybook Land in Egg Harbor County, NJ.  This versatile playground of a park includes fairytale scenes, rides and a sugar plum fairyland of a Christmas section.  I also learned they have a holiday festival complete with the jolly old elf, reindeer, and thousands of twinkling lights.  But on this sweltering August day...

Wwwhat?  Another North Pole?  Will the real North Pole please stand up... oh, wait.  You ARE standing...

Like the Queen of England, I'm inspecting the troops.

But what delighted me the most was the display of holiday animated characters.  Could these little snowbabies be the same ones who adorned the Marshall Fields windows back in the day? 

Back home, Santa's Village has been resurrected as Santa's Village Azoosment Park; the classic structures still stand.

Check in with my post tomorrow and perhaps Santa will leave a few images you haven't seen since you were a tot, ready to pull apart your Christmas stocking with glee.

What to do this weekend? How about a trip down Memory Lane and an Autumn Fest combined?

http://www.santasvillagedundee.com/publisher/upcoming-events-and-fun/2011/7/30/upcoming-events

It's an uncommonly brilliant autumn thus far.  Want to do something sweet and memorable while enjoying the amazing weather?  Drive on out to visit our old friend, Santa's Village in East Dundee!  It's re-open, it's now an "Azoosment park" with gentle animals.  Listen up:  they're having a fall festival this weekend and the next two!  Follow the link above to learn more.  What a perfect way to spend a great Fall afternoon with the kiddies - or to travel back in time to the park you remember as a kid!  Bonus: it is the current home of two of the beloved Kiddieland rides!

Enjoy these photos, but do take a hike out west to enjoy more in person.  Get a pumpkin while you're at it; we did!

 You'll certainly remember the little Tyrolean welcome tower...

 The Kiddieland kiddie whip, alive and kicking!

 My weakness?  Lambs.  I love lambs.  I get stupid around lambs.  This one almost ate my notebook.

 A goat with an amazingly sincere face.  Forgot his name, but I shall call him Enoch.

Yes, that's us on the kiddie coaster, screaming to high heavens.  We left the pumpkins at the entrance of the ride, in case you're worried.

The Grand Finale.

When a park sits dormant, vacant, for years, it's a miracle if it EVER gets refurbished again.  Well, I'll be witnessing a miracle of sorts today, when I visit Santa's Village Azoosment Park in Elgin, IL.  To add to the miraculous?  They've bought two of Kiddieland's rides, saving them from the scrap metal heap.

It used to be Santa's Village, and I remember all sorts of North Polian buildings and rides, and the Jolly Old Elf himself.  But now it's, well, we'll see what it's all about in a short few hours.  It's an "azoosment park" so animals have been included, which is smart because everyone enjoys visiting gentle farm animals, but especially kids.  Give kids a petting zoo and they're happy for hours.

What's really ironic is that it was brought to my attention that two years ago this week, Kiddieland closed.  That was the beginning of my Road Trip.  And what will I be doing to commemorate the end of said trip?  Visiting a retooled park that was one of my childhood haunts, that's rescued some of the vintage rides from our beloved Kiddieland, allowing a whole new generation of kids to enjoy them.

It's poetic, it's an eloquent full circle moment.  I dig when stuff like that happens.

Where have the Kiddieland Rides gone? Read and learn!

Mercy buckets to Jill Chukerman-Test for sending me a "heads up" on this Chicago Tribune photo essay on the whereabouts of the beloved Kiddieland rides.

Just a little bragging rights here: I gave the gentleman at Nelis' Dutch Village the info about the auction of the Kiddieland rides and he bought the pumper cars, which now are enjoyed at his park.  I look at the photo here and get just a little misty.

Next up on my roadtrip: a visit to the reborn Santa's Village Azoosment Park to revisit two of these transplanted rides!

BTW: When I win the Powerball, after taking my Dad on a trip around the world and buying Ben a Borsalino, I'll be purchasing the German carousel, oh yes I will.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-20110816-kiddieland-rides-pictures,0,3120793.photogallery