What I did on my summer vacation - part the two

And so… the intrepid travelers make their way over the highways and byways of British Columbia to the Burnaby Village Museum where they find, much to the delight of the Campbell of record, a village, and this...

And so here I iz making another post about something that fascinates me. In fact, let’s just call this…

The Carousel Take Three

You know, I’ve been thinking about my interest in carousels and carousel horses and I believe I have isolated the when and the where of it all, when the fascination first hit me. Now, to tell you about it we have to get permission from Mr. Peabody in order to use his ‘Way Back Machine’ and go back a few decades in time. I’m thinking we’d have to go back possibly to the middle to late 1960’s at a guess.

I recall, when I was a yute back in Niagara Falls, standing on a sidewalk located on a street that was once quite infamous in its day. Its name was, and still is, Erie Avenue. This used to be, again an age gone by, where women of negotiable affection plied their trade. But that was years ago and business and custom had moved away from Erie Avenue to other locales; the street and the buildings that I remember as that youth looked grubby and were in disrepair.

I remember looking in the dirty front window of an old rundown storefront, what you might call an antique store if you were feeling generous, past the corpses of flies, and seeing amidst the rather squalid items inside (I sort of recall the huge metal ‘harp’ out of a piano lying on its’ side) a beat up wooden carousel horse. I thought it was, in the jargon of the day, very cool.

In my mind that store was always closed, so I never had the opportunity to go in or to find out how much the horse was (and probably not that I could afford to buy it even then), or from whence it came. Still, the memory lingers.

Ah, my first horsey love.

The day after I posted the story I came across this shot of the building in question shot around 2005

My second infusion, if memory is serving this up correctly, occurred in Springbank Park in London, Ontario. I was a rock’n’roll musician back then (we’re talking the mid 70’s now) and I was this tall skinny bass player with long permed hair and a beard. I was also into photography, as they say, and had photographed (and even attempted a painting of) the horses on the carousel that is located in the park. The painting, I admit, was not a very good one and has fortunately been lost to the ages. I still have many of the images I shot back then, including a few of the horses and carousel, but these have not been digitized and were shot mostly on slide film (which is beginning to fade now). It was back then that I really looked at the expressions on the horses’ faces for the first time.

I’ve written at some length on this topic in an earlier blog entry so I won’t redo the rant here.

So since then I’ve been a photographer of carousels when I could find them in my wanderings. These ones from Burnaby are a beautiful example of the woodcarver’s art.

As it turns out, I seem to have turned another corner or added another dimension to my interest in carousels and their horses. I’ve done more than just photograph; I’ve actually researched this carousel in particular and found out a bunch of interesting information about it.

I found out the who, the when, and the where of its manufacture.

The carousel was built in 1912 at Leavenworth, Kansas (yes, also home of the federal prison and the fort of the same name) by Charles Wallace Parker who owned the C. W. Parker Company. This was the 119th carousel made by that company and it was sold initially in 1913 for $5,886.00. Its speed on the outermost track is a rocketing 7 ½ mph (and about 5 mph on the inside track).

Hell, I’ve even found out the names the horses were given during the latest round of restoration work that was started in the 1990’s (the horses were named by the patrons who paid for their restoration. Their names appear in the article that is cited below).

And if you’re interested in more on it’s history see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._W._Parker_Carousel

The only problem with this list is that, at least online, there is no master diagram that shows you which horse is where on the carousel, or tells you where the numbering started in their tally. If I had this information I could tell you the names of all the horses I shot.

The exception to this is horse #37, known as "Old Paint". The horse was named for the "old paint" that was originally on the carousel before it was restored and is currently in a display case next to the carousel.

Another little tidbit of information is that Parker liked to use the term Carry-Us-All for the ride and some people mistakenly think that this is the origin of the word carousel. It isn’t. I believe that I also wrote about this at some length earlier in a previous posting.

Wow, what beauties these are. Go ahead, look at them all again. And there are more.

All photographs taken by me.

What I did on my summer vacation - part the one

My wall, Railway Street, Vancouver BC

As it turned out, and in spite of what I have written as the title of this entry, I was unable to take any vacation this year during the summer (the vagaries of seniority and working in the transit industry). Not only that but, and again largely because of scheduling, I missed the opportunity to travel to Europe with my good friend Sid. Zut alors! I admit to being a bit despondent about this and so I had to live vicariously through Sid’s travels and photographs. He has some great photographs of a cemetery in England by the way.

Upon his return from his trip Sid did a most remarkable thing for me and is thereby deserving of much kudos (I’ve been reading a book by the author Iain M. Banks, ‘The Algebraist’, which was given to me by Sid ostensibly for reading on my return trip to Toronto. This book uses the term ‘kudos’ quite a bit. By the way, according to my dictionary the word ‘kudos’ doesn’t have a plural form so that if you say “many kudos” it is in fact the wrong usage, it’s much or nothing.). Sid paid for my airfare to Vancouver from Toronto and back again. Not only that but he also rented us a car to bop around in for the duration of my stay (Sid being a non driver) and, to top it all off, he put me up in his apartment. Much kudos indeed.

After a bit of a rough start getting to the airport (I’m not going to go into detail but I thought for a while that I was going to miss the plane) I flew to Vancouver and met Sid at the baggage carousel in the airport. After claiming my checked bag we got the car from the rental place (another story here too) then went to lunch at a restaurant by the water.

Wow, in British Columbia once again. 

Ship in Burrard Inlet

So my summer vacation happened to be in October, at the tail end of what may be thought of as the summer tourist season (and before the winter skiers start to arrive).

Now having a vacation in October is not necessarily a bad thing. There are actually many pluses in doing so. During the summer sometimes the weather is too hot or too cold or it’s too humid, all that kind of climatic stuff. Me, I enjoy the fall, the change in the weather, the cooler nights, and don’t forget the beauty which is manifest by the change of season and the colours of the leaves. Also, and this could be a big thing, the end of tourist season means fewer people visiting national historic sites like Ft. Langley and the Britannia Cannery. No lineups. How cool is that?

I was fortunate that for the first few days after I arrived there was sunshine for much of the time. And when it rained, which it did, particularly in the later part of the week, I thought that was okay too. It just presented different photographic opportunities. The expression ‘available gloom’ comes to mind.

So I arrived on Saturday and we went to the Flying Beaver for brunch. We did a little expedition to Grouse Mountain (but didn’t take ‘Skyride’ car to the top of the mountain. The fee for riding the gondola was so exorbitant in my estimation, 40 bucks, that we decided not to go). Instead we found a road that lead to Capilano Lake and the Cleveland Dam where we stopped and took pictures. Tres tranquil.

Capilano Lake

On Sunday we did Ft Langley and the Farm Machinery Museum (also in Langley and actually much cooler than it might sound).

Cooper's shop, Fort Langley

Sawyer Massey tractor

Sid had to work during the week and this gave me time to tool around on my own and do mini photographic expeditions, unt I did. I drove along beaches, checked out log rafts at Wreck Beach, crossed the Lions Gate Bridge to North Vancouver, ventured out to Granville Island, and even did typical tourist stuff in Gastown (near where Sid works). I also did Stanley Park and saw some cool laughing sculptures near one of its entrances.

Lions Gate Bridge

M V Meander at False Creek

Log rafts in the Straight of Georgia off Wreck Beach

Stanley Park Drive

A-maze-ing Laughter by Yue Minjun

The next Saturday, the day before I had to leave, Sid and I set out for Steveston. Now it was a rainy day mostly and so we did get a bit wet when we were walking around, but that was okay. It gave the place a wet atmosphere, which suited. We photographed the Britannia Shipyards, boats in the harbour, and took a tour of the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. The only really downside to the day was that, particularly in the shipyard, some of the exhibit areas, buildings and sheds, were closed to us.

Britannia Heritage Shipyard

Gulf of Georgia Cannery

And so we came, we went, we took photos, we drove around, we had lunch.

And then I lost my memory, or ran out of memory really. Well, I mean that the camera ran out of memory. I was down to my last shot when we decided to do a run back to civilization (again not really, but back towards Vancouver and to a place where there were malls) looking for some place that would sell memory cards for my Nikon; a Staples, Future Shop, something along those lines.

We found the former not far from the later. I picked-up some more memory for my camera, Sid picked up a memory stick for his pocket.

After returning to the car we had a brief discussion on where to go next: back to the docks, home for beers, or perchance head off for otherwhere. We consulted our trusty map and discovered something very interesting at a place called Deer Lake Park, and so we made our way there. And that’s the subject of the next part of the posting.

House of a Hundred Dragons

Ice dragon

 Well, that may be a bit misleading. Actually maybe it should be called something like Basement of 100 Dragons, except it doesn't really sound all that great. How about the Dungeon of Dragons? Hmmm... That sounds a bit too familiar, I might have to get permission to use that from someone. Better not go in that direction. I often think of where I live as the Electric Cave. I picked that up somewhere in my reading. So what about the Electric Cave of Dragons? That sounds a bit too, ah, contrived or something. I looked it up on-line as well and there's quite a few references to Electric Cave and so that idea might have to be kiboshed as well. Now, a plethora is nice, but sounds a bit too snooty. Repository of Reptiles? Hmmm... no I don't think so.

  Okay, let's just leave it as 'House of a Hundred Dragons' or we'll get precisely nowhere. Now what's next? How 'bout a spiffy quote?

  "A collection is something that you don't realize you have until someone gives you the third one as a gift." -me.

  I suppose that will work.

  I happened to buy my first two dragons many years ago, on the last day of the CNE (that stands for the Canadian National Exhibition for those not in the know) at one of the displays in the arts and crafts building on the exhibition grounds. They were on sale.  Discount dragons as it were.  And from that start a collection has grown. So there's a hundred dragons in my living space. Well I say 100 dragons, and there are, but there are really more than that if you include all the dragon paraphernalia and oddments. So I have not only the standing dragons, but also pictures, post cards, books, a tattoo (yes i have one of those as well, I carry it with me at all times), wine glasses, a tea set with cups and a tray, a cookie jar of all things, knife, sword cane, another wooden cane, incense burners, puzzles, et al. Many of these things have been sent or given to me over the years. And,yes, I bought a bunch.

My first two dragons

 There are big dragons (big in the figurine world anyway), some a foot or so in height (or length), although I do have one wall mask that's just short of 2 feet; and I have many small dragons. The smallest, and not a pendant or anything (and yes I have a couple of those too), is only an inch or so big. (Those interested in metric conversions will have to do the math themselves). I even had a glass dragon made specifically for me by my sister-in-law Linda. Thank you so much.

Dragon wall mask

 They sit patiently on shelves, they adorn the walls, they peek out from on top of the fireplace, they amass on my chest of drawers, and they have even invaded the bathroom. They are of many colours and from many cultures; they appear fierce, cunning, proud, sensuous, powerful, and many fire the imagination ...and above all else they are wondrous and terrifying creatures to behold.

Dragon wall skull

Dragon battle

 And how have I managed to get to reach the magic 100 dragons? Well, time helped. As you can tell I've been collecting off and on for years, but I was actually far short of having a hundred. I would like to also say that I haven't really been looking to add to the collection for the last couple of years and so I wasn't really looking. Well, kind of.

Water dragon

Dragon mirror

Carved wooden dragons

  This latest frenzy of dragon acquisition had actually started with a recurrent thought. I had often thought that it would be nice to have for my 'collection' a scaled down model of one of those dragon costumes that you see in Chinese celebrations, the ones that have all the guys underneath, snaking their way through the crowds at festivals, accompanied with horns and fireworks. Very neat that. I actually thought it would be cool to have a full sized version of the costume but I haven't got the space or the financial resources to afford to buy one. My 'scaled down' idea first came to me many years ago, but I never saw a smaller version of the costume. Until recently.

Metal shelf dragon

  I work as a bus driver in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto. It has a very high Asian population. I mean that there are many people who live there who are of Asian descent, not that great numbers of them are in a drug-induced perceptually disorientated state of awareness, at least as far as I know. On this particular evening I had parked the bus in the large parking lot of a mall (it's okay, we're allowed to park there) and had gone across the road and into a large Chinese grocery store, the GooDY Mart, looking for rice bread (there's a story there too but this isn't the place for it) while I was on a short break. I didn't find anything remotely like I wanted in the baked goods section, but on one of the lighting fixtures over an open refrigeration unit I saw a golden dragon hanging, it was a dragon marionette.

Dragon marionette

  I don't think I ever told you that I have a thing for marionettes as well. I even built one out of bits of flotsam and jetsam that I collected in the whirlpool below Niagara Falls. No foolin'. His name is Cyrino. I even have a Balinese shadow puppet, but that's another other different story. Sorry, I'm wandering again.

  As I said, I couldn't hang around in the store for very long, I had to leave and head for the bus shelter at the corner of the major intersection where I was going to do a break relief for another driver (take over his bus while he had a chance to grab some lunch and relax for a half hour or so while I did part of his route). Oh, did I mention that this was just past Chinese New Year in February of this year (2011)? I don't know what the Chinese date for the year might be. I do know that it's the Year of the Golden Rabbit. So I saw a dragon marionette, actually several, used as store displays. I couldn't then stop to inquire about them.

  I wasn't able to return to the corner, to the store, until the following week. Same situation as before, only this time I was hoping that all the dragons I had seen last week hadn't been either sold or stored away. I went in, looked, and there it was (or they were, but I had already fixated on one particular dragon). I actually took the thing off the display and after a bit of looking for someone to help me, and a comic moment trying to get the Chinese shelf stockers to understand what I wanted, they called over someone up the chain of command, a manager of some kind. We talked, he brought me and the dragon first to a large display of dragons (actually different from the one I was holding, and not as nice to my mind) and other Chinese New Years decorations, and then on to a cashier. When I asked what the price of the dragon was I was told $14 (during the week I had done a bit of investigation on-line and had seen ones there, again not as nice as the one I saw at the GooDY Mart, going for $27 + S&H). Sold!

 I was so pleased in my purchase I showed it to the driver who's break relief I was doing. He mentioned that he had once been into dragons, didn't have the space for them in his new place, asked if I might like to have them, maybe buy them. I said I'd be interested.

  The next week, same corner, same break relief, same driver. When I took over his bus he didn't mention anything about the conversation that we'd had last time. I didn't push it. I figured that if he was interested in passing on his dragons, then fine, if not, if he had reconsidered, then that was fine as well. When I brought back the bus to the stop he got on and then asked me if I was still interested in his dragons. I said yes. He mentioned then that he also had something else that was kind of special. He also said that it wasn't really practical to bring all of them into work (we have different shifts and it would be difficult to meet and to put them in my car, also I think that he just wanted to see them and show them off for a last time) so could he bring them over to my place.

 A couple of days later he brought two boxes over to my place and down into the, ah, dungeon. He put the first box on the table and opened it, removed a bunch of paper that was serving as packing material, and then unwrapped six figures: four dragons and two wizards. He then started opening and unwrapping the second box and it contained a dragon chess set (again something that I had long wanted, thought was cool, and didn't think I could see my way to affording). I gave this driver some money for the brood, a sum that I won't mention but seemed to satisfy him and that I thought made this a good deal for both concerned.
 

Dragon chess set

 In the end I had to rearrange a bit of the collection to make room, that's how the new dragons ended up taking over the bathroom (with a couple of additions of similar pieces from my previous hoard). The dragon chess set I set up on my dresser. It's very cool.

 In about a week I did a count of all the figures I had (and it wasn't always easy to keep track, some of the dragons are very elusive) and, voila, the magic one hundred was reached. The chess set alone has the 32 men (and women, don't forget the queens) and 4 corner dragons that hold up the glass board itself.

 So I live with a bunch of dragons, a hundred or so of them. It's a peaceful enough coexistence, they seem to put up with all my idiosyncrasies, I put up with theirs. And to be honest, in spite of what I just related, I'm really not looking for any new acquisitions, but if something comes up, well...

Sid

 

Here’s looking at you.

As I mentioned a couple of postings ago, this site has been abandoned for nearly a year. That there has been any movement on it recently is likely the direct result of one person, and he knows who he is.

I am also relatively sure that the person in question is the only one that visits this site on a regular basis (and possibly the only one who visits the site at all), checking in as it were from time to time, and leaving behind little messages to let me know he poked his head in. I wanted to leave something for him too.

Thinking that, I had developed this mental image.

There is this dark and quiet room somewhere in my imagination. The door is closed. Without warning the door is thrown open and a head appears in the opening. It scans the room and asks, “Anybody here?” waits for a second to check for an answer, and then says to itself, “I guess not.” A hand reaches in and tosses a business card on the floor near the small pile of other cards there, and then disappears. The door closes.

Now the cards themselves are interesting. They aren’t really business cards as I initially described them. They are more like the old Victorian calling or visiting cards, carte de visite actually. They show images of the caller.

Something like these images.

 Sid and I at Ryerson, dress optional

I’ve been intending to do something like this for a while, again another pot on the back burner looking to be stirred.

 Sid and Jack Daniels

What this really is is a posting about friendship, and appreciation too. Also I was hoping to give him a little surprise and make him laugh.

 

Sid on the Alabama

As a note for person or persons unknown who may have stumbled on this site and have stopped long enough to scan the pictures and text I should like to offer a word of explanation. I have known Sid for many years now and I am fortunate to count him as friend. We met at Ryerson (when it wasn’t a University) in front of the doors of the lecture hall in the Film and Photography building in Toronto, Ontario. We struck up a conversation that day and have been friends ever since. We have hung out together, traveled together, and even though the courses of our lives have caused us to be separated physically by thousands of miles, we still take the time out to keep in touch. 

Pilot Sid

Sid of Muskoka

These are a few of the images and times that we share.

The Port Perry Fair (part the second)

 

Actually the clown in the car from the previous post was the official 'balloon lady' and I was told that she is something of an institution at these events. Clowns and institutions, hmmm.  There’s something in that combination of words that is worrying. Doctor, I don't want to talk about the clowns right now, okay?

Anyway, as I was saying, because things go in circles, there just had to be a carousel, and there just had to be a cute girl and her mom riding it, and they were nice enough to let me photograph them. I was already in the process of taking pictures of the ride itself. Look at that face.

Now look at these faces.

One of the things that fascinates me about carousels is the look in the animal’s faces. I see things there that are not all nicey, nicey.  I see panic, and fear, and sometimes other emotions. The people riding the ‘pretty ponies’ are oblivious to that fact. Odd, isn’t it?

 

The bonus round at the Port Perry Fair:

There was actually a 2^nd carousel there as well, this one in miniature. 

And  I spent a while talking to it’s creator, Gord Fraser, about carousels and other things. I told him that I really liked his work. I also, of course, spent more than a little time photographing the wonderful menagerie of animals that he had carved, painted, and set in place, like this dragon...

... stork

... tiger

...goat

...and camel.

But you can also see in the pictures a number of other animals that he had done a remarkable job on as well. Way to go Gord.

Pretty cool, eh?

All the photographs in this and the last posting are mine by the way.

The Port Perry Fair (part the one)

 

It was just about a year ago that I made my last posting. It’s kind of funny because I even knew what  I was going to be posting next. This is it believe it or not. And then things got in the way, life mainly, and other things happened, hairstyles changed, and writing stuff was relegated to the back burner. Wow, it really must be time to add a bit of water to the stew. Do you smell anything burning?

I have to say that I really like country fairs. Living in the Toronto area you get a lot of hype and advertisement about the big fair, the Canadian National Exhibition, and it’s okay in it’s own way, there’s a lot of things to see and a lot of things going on, but for me it’s just too big (and too expensive to go to, particularly if you’re planning to take your family with you). Parking is always extra.

Now the country fair is another thing entirely. It’s geared for family and, in a way, community. The rides aren’t necessarily as big or as gaudy as most of those in The EX, but I don’t really find that to be a drawback either. Parking is closer as well.

I have a couple of very cherished moments that are centered on fairs like this.

I like the fact that it takes place in a large field somewhere. I like the green of the turf played off the big blue sky. On this particular day the clouds just added to the pretty picture.

So how did I get to this particular fair? It was about an hour’s drive from where I live outside Toronto (in Scarborough, which I often refer to as Scarberia). The reason I went there was, well I got this new car you see (new to me as they say) and I just wanted to get out of town and go for a drive, and I thought I’d like to see my brother Ralph and his family, and I wanted to take some photographs.

My brothers, his wife Linda, and their daughter Taya, are all involved in a clogging dance group (the family that clogs together stays together?). During the summer months this group make a number of appearances at local fairs and events, and they were appearing at the Port Perry Fair.

The covered pavilion they were dancing in is not very conducive to glamour photography but sometimes it’s just important to do what you can do and grab a couple of shots for the archive. Here’s a shot of a group of them clogging like gangbusters. I still remember the reverberating sound of the cleats on the stage floor. The last three in the line at the right, starting with the big fella’, are Ralph, Taya, and Linda. Hi guys.

So that’s what got me ‘oot and aboot’ on that particular day.

And so I made my merry way, listening to music on the stereo of my car (I’ve maintained to a number of people that this car is the best sounding stereo I ever owned. And you can even move it around with you too.). I didn’t drive directly to Port Perry though. First I went to check out and photograph the exterior of an abandoned Slavic cathedral just north of Toronto in Markham. No foolin’. Then it was to pastures new.

So I arrived at the fairgrounds, parked, paid my fee, and sauntered in to the grounds. It was great. There’s all sorts of stuff to see and do; there were live shows, lots of music, animals (domestic, tamed and otherwise), and families milling and laughing all around.

And lots of stuff to photograph, from old farm machinery…

…to new tractors. That’s my brother again, by the way, next to the John Deere.

…and the food. There was ice cream, and candyfloss, pizza, hamburgers and sausages, and more. Oh my. The smell of fried onions made my mouth water. And you get the chance to talk to people. It’s only in settings like these, I think, that you actually might get the opportunity, like Ralph and I did, to talk to the guy who actually made the sausages that he sold, and we bought, hot and juicy from the grill. Did I mention fried onions?

Another bonus that day was that they were having trotter races going on at the same time.

I was amused that the whole of the midway appeared to be only 3 trailers long.

And I do like the little rides. I like the way that the ferris wheel seems to rise up through the ground and soar into the sky.

Here you can see ‘Avalanche’ loaded up in the background, and they had one of those variations on a theme rotating tea cup rides, this one featured rotating strawberries if you can believe (and a country fair is a place of magic my friend so it makes belief possible).

 

And because things go in circles, there just had to be a carousel.

And then some clown drives their car right up behind you as you’re just standing there minding your own business.

Wouldn't you know it.