For as long as I can remember, the Ferris wheel has played a part in my life. During the summers while I was growing up, my family attended the festivals in the surrounding small towns and the Green County Fair held in Monroe, Wisconsin. The events included a travelling carnival that set up a midway with snacks, games of chance and thrill rides. Dad always took me for a spin.
When 16-year-old Kenny asked this 14-year-old to ride the Ferris wheel at Davis Days, I didn’t realize it was our beginning as a couple. Sixty years later, we commemorated that momentous occasion by taking another whirl at the Old-Fashioned Days hosted by the State Bank of Davis.
The Ferris wheel was designed and created by Illinois native and civil engineer, George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago from May 1 to October 30 and attended by 25.8 million people. The original structure was 264-feet high with 36 cars each carrying 60 passengers for a total of 2,160 people. Through the years, the popular ride has been duplicated in many different sizes.
A Precious Moments replica of a Ferris wheel was part of the decorations for our Golden Anniversary open house. It has a father and daughter sitting in one bench seat, a teenage boy and girl in the next and an old couple in the third. It remains in our curio cabinet as a reminder of days gone by.
After our celebration, I used our reminiscing to begin a memoir about our seven-year courtship during the 1950s. I had my mother’s diaries to jog my memories. It took ten years of research, writing and rewriting before I submitted it to Adelaide Books, an independent New York firm. They offered me a contract and published my story titled, “The View from a Midwest Ferris Wheel.” It’s available for sale on line from Amazon in Kindle and paperback form. To publicize my work, I’ve joined a new group, Authors Supporting Authors, and attended several book fairs.
What has been a continuing part of your life?