For me as a kid, no summer was complete without a trip to our local amusement park, now sadly razed and turned into a condominium complex. So this Blast from the Past is a slightly bittersweet one...aside from the history geek in me simply loving it!
Isn't this wonderful...not to mention amazing--an early roller coaster! It's from a series of prints entitled "Le Bon Genre", originally published in France in 1817 (a second series came out in 1822 and a third in 1827) as an amusing look at life and entertainment among the fashionable classes in and around Paris. Note the little oil lamps on posts running down the sides--wherever this was, you could evidently ride it at night. I can't help wondering if a lot of ladies lost those wonderfully fluffy ostrich plumes off their hats--you may not be able to see it very well, but the lady half-way down the slide is reaching for hers with an alarmed look on her face. And I wonder if that little girl is about to say "Can we go again? Pleeeeease?" In French, of course.
So much for Six Flags, huh?
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