Author Archives: Cindy

About Cindy

Married, Female, Empty Nester Love to garden, cook, read.

Idlewild Park

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I’ve been thinking lately about a place from my youth. It’s called Idlewild Park. Idlewild is a family amusement park located in southwestern Pennsylvania, where I grew up. It is located in an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful idyllic countryside with meandering streams and lush forests known as the Laurel Highlands.

Old Time Days at Idlewild (Photo courtesy of Idlewild Park)

Old Time Days at Idlewild (Photo courtesy of Idlewild Park)

I loved this place, and still do! I have many happy memories of family picnics there when I was a little girl.

The school district in which we lived had a picnic at the park every year at the end of the school year. All the kids would carry a bagged lunch to the school on the very last Saturday of the school year to hop on school buses that would take them to the park for the day. But, not our family.

Oh, no! This was one of our family’s big events of the summer. And, it was a big day! Dad and Mom and, usually Grandma, would pack up the station wagon with the picnic fixings and us kids and we would drive over the mountain to get to the park as soon as it opened. The three food staples always on hand at this yearly picnic were Mom’s potato salad and pickled eggs and Grandma’s ham salad. Sometimes, we had Dad’s homemade chocolate and peanut butter fudge. And we always packed a few bottles of fix-a-drink (see the story here https://cindyscountrycorner.com/2009/03/25/fix-a-drink/).

What this meant is that our friends from school would go sit under a pavilion and eat a PB&J or a cold cut sandwich, while we grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and had potato salad, ham salad and huge chunks of watermelon. The students who went to the park from school had to leave the park at 5 p.m. But, not us! We could stay till the park closed. Matter of fact, I do recall one time packing up and leaving so late that we got locked in the park! Some park attendant had to come back and let us out! We were the Griswalds before there were the Griswalds, if you know what I mean!

Some of my earliest memories are of this park. I remember going when I was very small, and too little for the “big kid” rides. So, I spent my time in Kiddie Land. My favorite ride there was one that wasn’t even motorized. It was called Kiddie Cars. You got to hop into this little car (that reminded me of a giant ice skate) and you got to pedal yourself (on a rail) around a little wooded area. If some slow poke littler kid (yes, I meant to say littler) was in front of you, then you were stuck! I used to ride the rail as fast as I could pedal and at the end, the ride attendant would tell me that I was the fastest of anyone he had ever seen in his many years of supervising that ride. So, I would naturally, pay another ticket and go around again to see if I could beat my own record! He always said I did!

But, I really couldn’t wait until I was tall enough to ride the big kid rides – the roller coaster, bumper cars and caterpillar. The Rollo Coaster at Idlewild is awesome. It is a Philadelphia Toboggan Company Rollo Coaster built and sent to the park in 1938. It is still in operation today and has been named a Classic Coaster by the American Coaster Enthusiasts.

The Rollo Coaster (photo courtesy of Idlewild Park)

The Rollo Coaster (photo courtesy of Idlewild Park)

The Caterpillar is an old ride, too. According to Idlewild’s website (http://www.idlewild.com/) the Caterpillar is a set of linked cars that speed around a circular track. During the ride, a green canopy covers the riders leaving them in the dark. From the outside, the covered ride resembles a caterpillar. There are only three Caterpillar rides remaining in North America with only two, including Idlewild’s 1947 model, known to still use the canopy.

The Caterpillar (photo courtesy of Idlewild Park)

The Caterpillar (photo courtesy of Idlewild Park)

The bumper cars, known as Skooters, were first introduced at Idlewild in 1931. The cars, themselves, have been replaced a few times over the last seven decades, but the building that houses the ride remains the same.

The Bumper Cars (Photo courtesy of Idlewild Park)

The Bumper Cars (Photo courtesy of Idlewild Park)

The Merry-Go-Round is a beautiful carousal. It, too, was built by Philadelphia Toboggan Company and has been at Idlewild since 1931.

Idlewild was founded in 1878, making it the oldest amusement park in Pennsylvania. I also read somewhere that it is the third oldest park in the nation and the twelfth oldest park in the world.  It has won several awards, including five from Amusement Today as the second-best children’s park in the world.

So, I will be in western Pennsylvania in August having my yearly vacation with my three sisters. And, I want to spend one day at Idlewild. We could pack a picnic! Linda can make Mom’s potato salad. I could make Grandma’s ham salad. Bonnie could make Dad’s fudge. Pam, well, I don’t know what to have her make. We’ll think of something!

And, then, on my bucket list, I want to ride the Rollo Coaster! It’s tame by today’s standards, so I don’t think it will kill us! And, I can post the pictures on my blog! Gosh, I hope there’s not a weight restriction in order to ride!

So, I hope my sisters are up for it! And, dear readers, if you are ever in western Pennsylvania, spend a day at Idlewild Park. You won’t regret it!

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Blue Dog’s First Bath

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10

I can’t tell you about all the ups and downs we’ve had with this dog ownership thing, yet. It requires a bit more thought than I have time for right now.

But I have had several requests for updates.

On Monday, Blue Dog went to the vet and it has been determined that he is a bull terrier mix. He is about 6 months old and is healing fairly nicely from his dog fight wounds.

He is still underweight, but looks better than he did when he first came to us.

His eyes will certainly remain blue.

I will take him to the vet next week for his parvo and distemper shots.

We gave him a bath on Tuesday evening. It was a sort of sponge bath as he still has some “hot spots” (bite wounds) that are healing.

After his bath, we brought him into the house. He is doing quite well with the three cats. We may let him sleep inside tonight.

This is the first time we fed him. Day 1

This is the first time we fed him. Day 1

This is his first bath on Tuesday afternoon. We were gentle due to his hot spots.

This is his first bath on Tuesday afternoon. We were gentle due to his hot spots.

 

After his bath!

After his bath! He's a pretty boy, isn't he? Woohoo!

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Millie’s Angel

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Millie's Angel

Millie's Angel

When I finished mulching the one section of my garden on Sunday, I put Millie’s Angel back in her place and thought about the role Millie played in my life.

You see, Millie’s Angel is a lawn ornament. She is a little concrete cherubim that was originally left in the flower garden of a home Brian and I bought in Ohio. The lawn ornament belonged to Millie and when she and Ted moved out of the house, she left the angel in the garden for us.

Ted and Millie were downsizing and purchased a smaller home in the same subdivision, so we saw them from time to time and became pretty good acquaintances. When we put our house on the market a few years later to move back to the south, we listed the house with Ted.

We wouldn’t know the role Millie would play in our lives until about this time.

Our 26 year marriage, for a ton of wrong reasons, was about to fall apart and the unlikeliest of angels came and rescued us. Job issues, family issues, marriage issues had finally taken their toll and we were going to sever a lifetime of being a couple and go our separate ways.

It was Millie that came to our rescue. She was the first guardian angel we had in our lives that we recognized as being such. And her actions actually caused a series of events to occur that brought us back together and made us remember what was most important to us – each other.

Millie came to our house on the morning I was to leave. I had the car loaded with my personal possessions and was ready to go. Millie would keep an eye on the house, water the plants and make sure everything looked fresh for potential buyers since Brian and I would separately be staying miles away.

Millie tried to talk me out of leaving. She tried to feed me some breakfast. She told me to get a few more hours sleep. She made us tea. I must have looked a wreck! She asked me to come and stay with her and Ted for a little while. She told me she would travel with me and fly home so I would not be driving by myself. She offered everything of herself that she could to ease my physical burden. She even gave me some money to make sure I would have enough for my trip and getting settled.

I was determined to go. I had no reason, no family and no desire to stay where I was any longer. So, Millie dawdled while receiving instructions on the house plants and the other house issues as I was getting more anxious to get some distance behind me.

But, had Millie not slowed my departure I would have been on the road much earlier and would not have received the call that changed everything for Brian and I. I smile about it even now, because I know her actions were intentional.

Millie also knew that our road back together would not be easy, so she gave us books to read to help us with our healing. She talked to us, individually and together in her quiet soft spoken way and helped us to soften our hearts towards each other. We learned that it is more important to be kind than to be right.

For all of you that remember the classic 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Clarence helps George find his way back to his family. This was just like that. Millie helped us in the same ways that Clarence helped George. The only difference between this movie and our lives is that Clarence was an angel that was not of this world and our friend, Millie, is as human as you and I.

Yet, Millie is an angel, just like Clarence. She came into our lives when we needed her and then she was gone. She has helped others before us and helps people after us. It is just her nature.

Of course, when Brian and I left Ohio, together, as it should be, we took our lawn angel with us. We left some of our other possessions behind, but made room for her to come with us. She sat on our porch in Savannah, sat on our porch at Folly Beach and currently sits in my kitchen garden (protected from rain by the awning above).

We call this statue “Millie’s Angel.” She is our reminder of the greatest gift we ever received from another human being.  

In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” every time you hear a bell, an angel gets it wings. In real life, my life, every time, I look at Millie’s Angel, I am reminded that certain earthly angels have earned their wings.

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