Carousel - Magic for a Geek

Let me talk to you about magic.   Not the hocus-pocus or voodoo stuff but the simple magic that we as children experienced.

One of my favorite memories as a child was when we were living in New York.   There was a park just in walking distance of our backyard.  

I would start walking out from the house, and the land would go up and down in small hills.   Nothing was visible in front until I would hit the top of a hill and suddenly the park would come into focus, like materializing out of nothing.

My eyes would be drawn to the carousel first.   It was a structure of colors, scenes, animals, benches, machinery and grandeur.   It sat in the middle of the usual structures in a park; the swings, slides, monkey bars, and even concession stand.   It was the first thing I went to and the last that I got off.

What was magical about it wasn't that I was transported to a different world when I was on it, but that I saw more happening in this world when I was riding it.

I remember seeing the sprockets and drive-rods, camshafts extending out from the center column and wheels and pulleys, belts and chains.   Sometimes, when the central column was open, I would see the main articulating hub.   This was the sacred of sacred places.   A tree of platters, each surrounded by gear wheels.  Those gear wheels, driving each and every gear on the end of the numerous cams.   It was magic to watch the movement; from the huge electric motor to the flywheel, to the central shaft, turning the multi-platter of gears in the center column to the cams to the individual shafts that made the animals go up and down.  

As a child in kindergarten, this orchestra of movable parts, this masterpiece of clockwork perfection endlessly fascinated me.   It was magic.

After writing this blog, I realize that I really am a Geek.   Even back then.   But even geeks can experience magic.