Some memories about Fairyland Park and the Gypsies.
"I remember the big neon sign at the entrance had a clown on it
and they had one of those live pony rides featuring about 5 or 6
that went around in a circle."
"Around it's perimeter a RR track, maybe 15" gauge (between
rails), or even 24", ran which carried people-occupied cars. During
busy times, they had a real STEAM LOCOMOTIVE pulling the train,
miniarure, of course, and I remember gazing at the amazing linkage
which drove it's valves. The track ran through a tunnel in a
"mountain"; the train was stored over winter in it."
"Fairlyland was a gypsy camp before it was an amusement park. My
grandparents used to threaten my mom and my uncles when they
misbehaved that they'd be left with the gypsies."
"When I was REAL small, there was a group of real Gypsies, with
horses & wagons, encamped near of the Park."
"Al Miller found an antique fire engine for sale in Tennessee.
He brought the truck to Fairyland where it became a favorite
attraction. Kids clamored aboard the engine's back for slow,
screaming rides through the park. Drivers whipped the siren into a
frenzy while a blinding flasher splashed crimson through the trees.
When the engine wasn't making a spectacle of itself at Fairyland
proper, it was ringing its way through small town parades and
picnics—on lease from Al—with the renter's advertisement riding
high in the rear."
"Fairyland was never much trouble," Georgia Miller insists. "We
had the usual small problems—kids hopping on and off the carousel
or trying to sneak into the park. The only crime I remember
happened one day at our novelty stand. We had a novelty stand where
we sold balloons and airplanes and fireman hats, and, one day,
while my sister was tending it, a lady stole a little fur monkey.
But that worked out okay, too, because my sister chased her, and we
did get our monkey back."
"Fairyland Park where people paid to ride the Whoopee Coaster.
No, actually, it was just a bunch of timbers to drive your car
over."
