LETTERS: Hold on to history years ago
To the Editor:
About four years ago I took my grandson, Justin, on a driving trip back to my home in Kansas. We saw the Grand Canyon, the Rockies, and lots of sage brush on the way. I showed him where I attended college at Kansas University and the Medical Center in Kansas City. We even visited the farms of relatives but the highlight for me (and I hope for him) was my hometown, Marion.
Among other sites in Marion, we stopped at Central Park. I was amazed to find that the playground equipment I played on in the 1930s and '40s was still in use. The swings and slide were exciting but he was fascinated most by the merry-go-round. He'd never seen one like it before and, as a matter of fact, I hadn't either. I found a date on it — 1929. I don't know if that's the date of manufacture or installation. That's four years before I was born so it's a certified antique.
I understand the need to update things and I'm sure the constant maintenance on that old equipment is a challenge. But could you, just for the sake of nostalgia, preserve that merry-go-round? I'd wager that anything you replace it with will never be as popular. And it certainly won't withstand 80 years of hard use.
Don Hayen
San Marcos CA
