East Texas

By REGIS L. ROBERTS
Staff Writer

HENDERSON -- Marie Sullivan never got to go on the carousel at Lake Forest Park in her youth.

She had severe motion sickness.

"I would stand by and watch so many times and want to ride," she said.

The carousel is now owned by and housed at the Depot Museum in Henderson. It received its first run there Friday during Grandparents Day.

The day was a chance for grandparents to share with a younger generation what their lives were like.

Ms. Sullivan brought Arieanna Campbell, 7, a friend's child, to show her a side of life foreign to Arieanna.

Arieanna rode the 1950s-era carousel, its first run in four years, waving her arms as her horse made its way around the platform and up and down on the pole.

Ms. Sullivan said she would go to harvest fairs at Lake Forest Park each October. That's where she remembers seeing the carousel.

Susan Weaver, who retired as director of the museum in May, said the carousel will likely run for groups scheduling in advance and at events such as Grandparents Day and the Syrup Festival -- held the second Saturday in November.

In the museum, Ms. Weaver touched the cotton plant on display, recalling the feel and recounting how she developed a rhythm when she picked it.

"It's kind of a knack," she said.

Walking around the displays at the museum, one could hear elderly people explaining concepts and devices common to their youth but alien to today's young.

A butter churn? It was a marvel to the children.

After the carousel, the children and their grandparents went through the museum filing out questions on a scavenger hunt.

Educational stations included tool sharpening, butter churning and ice cream making.

The ice cream was prepared the way Jacque Endsley remembers making it -- no electricity, the only power coming from an arm turning a crank.

Born in 1929 and growing up with no electricity, Ms. Endsley said the hand crank was the only way get fresh ice cream.

Ms. Endsley's granddaughter actually asked her for a hand-powered ice cream maker this past Christmas.

She said it was a task to find one, her daughter eventually finding an Amish-made model online for $150.

"We've seen many changes and there will be more before we're gone," Ruth Dixon, 77, said sitting across from Ms. Endsley, reflecting on their past.

Ms. Endsley and Ms. Dixon traded stories from decades ago with clarity and detail as if the events happened a week ago.

They found out that both of their families were the only ones in their respective neighborhoods to have a radio and an outdoor well.

Ms. Endsley said her neighbors would come over to get water from her family's well and said the water in it was ice cold. She said they used to keep water melons cold in the well, with Ms. Dixon replying that her family did the same thing.

Now Ms. Dixon's children want her to write a journal recounting her past -- and they want it to be hand written.

"They're wanting grounding; they're wanting roots," she said.

She said she had fun revisiting her life, but she got so used to word processors to the point where handwriting the journal is a challenge. "My mother never saw a computer, I don't think."

Arieanna Campbell, 7, of Laneville, rides the carousel Friday during Grandparents Day at the Depot Museum in Henderson.
(Staff Photo By Tom Turner)