This weekend, everyone is invited to do some time travelling and revisit his or her childhood on the 1912 C. W. Parker carousel.
The carousel, which now calls the Burnaby Village Museum home, has turned 'round for a century.
Rides on the carousel will be free - sponsored by Chevron - on the museum's season opening day, Saturday, May 5.
The horses, festooned with garlands and flowers and other finery, have taken passengers on joy rides since 1936, when the carousel began operating at Happyland, the Vancouver amusement park that preceded Playland.
"I go down reasonably often, and I see all the people who used to ride it when it was at (Playland)," said Don Wrigley, one of the people who spearheaded the campaign to save the carousel in 1989.
"They're going 'round and you can see they're going 'round memory lane," he said. "This is the carousel that they used to ride when they were children."
One day, Wrigley saw a man in a wheelchair near the carousel. He was able to go on the carousel in a special spot designated for wheelchairs, Wrigley said.
"This gentleman, he burst into tears. He said, 'I never realized that I'd be able to ride this carousel again," Wrigley said.
Wrigley became president of newlyformed the Friends of the Carousel Society in 1989, when he began efforts to save the carousel and find a home for it.
"I guess I was moved by a young lady, her name was Venus," he said, referring to Venus Solano, the woman who first brought news of the possible sale of the carousel to the public.
Solano was a waitress at the Pacific National Exhibition and when she was waiting tables one day, she overheard that the carousel would be sold, according to Wrigley.
"And this really got to her because it was her childhood toy," he said. "And she loved that carousel."
The plan was to dismantle the carousel and send it to New York, to auction off the horses to museums and private collectors, Wrigley said.
The society managed to raise pledges to save it and also got a grant of $200,000 from the province, he added.
Wrigley, who was president of the Century Park Museum Association, said the museum - now the Burnaby Village Museum - would house the carousel, as the miniature railroad on site was moving to Confederation Park.
"So I stuck my neck out and said yes, we would provide a place for it," he said.
The board endorsed the idea, he added.
The City of Burnaby brought down a bylaw lending the society $330,000 to purchase the carousel - the asking price was $350,000, but Wrigley talked the owners down - with the stipulation that it would be paid back with pledges and the grant.
The society was able to pay the money back in a couple of years, according to Wrigley.
Volunteers - electricians and painters and others - came forward to help restore the carousel.
"A lot of retired tradespeople felt this was an opportunity to use their talents," Wrigley said.
It opened in the Don Wrigley Pavilion in 1993.
Early on, it was VanCity Credit Union that worked with Solano and started the Friends of the Carousel Society, according to Lisa Codd, curator of the museum and carousel.
West Coast Amusements donated staff time and trucks to help move the carousel to a warehouse in 1990, Codd said.
"It was an absolutely phenomenal project, when you think about it," she added, regarding all the work that went into it.
Maintaining a wooden carousel is extremely difficult, Codd said, adding that replacing all of the old wiring posed another challenge during the restoration project.
It took more than two years to restore the carousel, she said, with more than 200 volunteers working on it.
Twenty-two of the 39 original sponsors - each sponsored a horse and had the opportunity to name it, as well - and a number of key volunteers will take part in the first ride of the season on Saturday morning.
Ruth Copeland, wife of late mayor Bill Copeland, is expected to be there, riding the horse her family sponsored, Nipoti.
Unfortunately, Solano - who began the effort to save the carousel - has not yet been tracked down for the event, according to Codd.
Codd is hoping Solano will be found prior to the event.
The Burnaby Village Museum will open at 11 a.m., and the carousel will be open to the public at 12: 30 p.m. on Saturday.
The first ceremonial ride will take place at noon.
