FORGOTTEN PARKS....

Dear God of Golden Joy and Laughter,

There is a profound sadness about abandoned amusement parks. A website, The Roosevelts, has photo-documented these deserted venues: once sites of joy, and now of depression:
no bands playing, no children shouting,
no candy-butchers barking their wares,
no screaming, guests loving the thrill
of roller-coasters and parachute drops.

Just rusting rides and peeling paint...

One wonders why the once-grand parks
are so often left to decay rather than
being razed for re-use of the land.

Viewing the old photos one can imagine what the parks were in their hey-day: bustling with music, lights and color, excitied children, joyous families and young lovers, climbing aboard the rides and thrilling
to the brilliant sights and twinkling lights...

Surely the builders of these grand amusements anticipated many long years of success,
but somehow things went amiss.

Circumstances, unremembered now, made their enterprises eventually unsustainable.

One can almost hear the long-ago echoing screams of terror and laughter as patrons were hurtled through space on twisting rails.

The smell of carmel corn and cotton-candy wafted across the midway.

Your church groups, God, surely came here
for a Sunday of innocent laughter and fun.

Wide-eyed children mounted the hand-carved gaily painted horses to ride around
on the carousel to the sound of hurdy-gurdy carnival music.

A cackling witch warned of the exquisite terrors to be feared and loved
in the House of Horrors, but now she rots, silent and ignored in the bushes.

Dear Lord, bless all the owners and all the hard workers who constructed, painted, operated and maintained these grand gaudy lands which are now crumbling into oblivion.

Bless, too, all those who came to these fantasy places over the years, and found respite from the hardship of their lives...