A Very Special Carousel

This past weekend, while attending an annual folk music festival, I photographed a local treasure situated near my home just outside Washington, DC: the beautiful, almost antique, Glen Echo Carousel.  The carousel is entering its 91st May through September season of delighting young and old at Glen Echo Park.

The Glen Echo Carousel Building

This "menagerie carousel" was created in 1921 by the Dentzel Carousel Company of Germantown, Pennsylvania.  The 28 jumping horses, 12 standing horses,  12 menagerie animals (1 giraffe, 1 lion, 4 ostriches, 4 rabbits, 1 tiger & 1 deer) and 2 chariots - as well as the canopy - in this large three row carousel were hand wood-carved and painted.  Still in its original location, the carousel is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and received the National Carousel Association's Historical Carousel Award in 2005.

A carousel restoration and fairground art specialist, Rosa Ragan, completely restored the aging carousel and its wonderful Wurlitzer 165 band organ to their original beauty and splendor over a 20 year period ending in 2006.  Ragan developed a new process of uncovering the original paint, recording the colors and design, and then covering the original paint with a reversible varnish before giving each animal a white base coat and repainting it in the original colors.  She left a small "window to the past" of the original 1921 paint on the inward-facing side of each animal for riders to find.

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The Canopy

Auld Lang Syne

Auld lang syne is an old Scottish phrase meaning “old long-since” or “old long-ago.”  It has famously survived in the form of Robert Burns' poem, sung each New Year's Eve to a tune that Burns is said to have transcribed from an old man's singing of it.  Burns' version below is built from songs and poems of similar text dating back as far as an anonymous ballad in the Bannatyne Manuscript of 1568.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
sin’ auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin’ auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gies a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie-waught,
for auld lang syne.

Another version, the first that contains a form of the 'auld lang syne' phrase, is attributed to the courtly poet Sir Robert Ayton (1570-1638):

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never thought upon,
The flames of love extinguished,
And freely past and gone?
Is thy kind heart now grown so cold
In that loving breast of thine,
That thou canst never once reflect
On old-long-syne.

With 2010 soon to be “auld lang syne”, Cassandra sends all best wishes to each of her dear followers for the coming new year.

My Christmas Gift to You, My Dear Readers...

What Sweeter Music
(Originally Titled: "A Christmas Caroll, Sung to the King
in the Presence at White-Hall)

What sweeter music can we bring

Than a carol, for to sing

The birth of this our heavenly King?

Awake the voice! Awake the string!

Dark and dull night, fly hence away,

And give the honor to this day,

That sees December turned to May.

Why does the chilling winter’s morn

Smile, like a field beset with corn?

Or smell like a meadow newly-shorn,

Thus, on the sudden?

Come and see

The cause, why things thus fragrant be:

‘Tis He is born, whose quickening birth

Gives life and luster, public mirth,

To heaven, and the under-earth.

We see him come, and know him ours,

Who, with his sunshine and his showers,

Turns all the patient ground to flowers.

The darling of the world is come,

And fit it is, we find a room

To welcome him. The nobler part

Of all the house here, is the heart.

Which we will give him; and bequeath

This holly, and this ivy wreath,

To do him honour, who’s our King,

And Lord of all this revelling.

What sweeter music can we bring,

Than a carol for to sing

The birth of this our heavenly King?

~ Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Before listening to this lovely poem put to music by England's John Rutter and sung by Kings College Choir, please turn off Cassandra's Playlist at the bottom of the page by clicking on the large circular button...

Be of Good Cheer!

Cassandra



My Lady of Autumn

Currier & Ives "Autumn"

My Lady of Autumn, sing me your song
Play me your tune; tell me I'm wrong
Tell me you don't mean the things that you say
Tell me that we'll find a way.

Your eye clear as winter, your touch fresh as spring
You weigh like the summer, free as birds on the wing
The seasons are changing, it's time you were gone
The colors of you will go on.

Fields that were golden are changing to brown
Leaves that were green now tumble to the ground
The warm sun of summer makes way for the snow
I know it's time; you must go.

The light, it is changing, the sky's overcast
Winter is here now, autumn is past
Deep in this dark world some warmth I must find
Though it's winter in the valley, it's still autumn in my mind.

Dave Webber

(Scroll down to the bottom of the page to turn off Cassandra's Blog Music before listening to the video below.)

Currier & Ives' "American Homestead - Autumn"