Sweet Taste of Success During Carousel of Flavor

Photos by Evan Brandt

Richard Ellis of Maple Street knows how to enjoy an Italian hoagie from Monsanto Bros.; one of dozens and dozens of offerings at yesterday's 13th annual Carousel of Flavor.

For 13 years, the Carousel of Flavor has been big news in Pottstown.

An extremely successful restaurant festival that attracts thousands of people to downtown Pottstown every year, this year the event had an all new news hook.

When I went over to see how the Carousel itself looks, low and behold, not only was it spinning and playing music, it turns out it had just been certified for public use.

Now don't hop in your car and drive over there just yet. If you can believe it, retired long time State Farm Insurance agent George Wausnock, who also happens to be the President of the Carousel at Pottstown, doesn't have it insured for the public to ride it.

George Wausnock, carousel president, left, is joined at the
restored 

trolley that will serve as the snack bar
by volunteer Bob Roebuck Sunday.

At least not yet.

But if you stop by, you'll see the inside is painted; the floors have been polished, the safety fence has been installed and even the antique trolley has been restored to serve as the facility snack bar.

Full disclosure, I have done some work for this non-profit group, but being paid has never been the source of my enthusiasm for this project.

Although the cyber nay-sayers who love to make snide remarks about this project may scoff, I find
this to be one of the more up-lifting things going in Pottstown.

Understand that there is a certain population of people who feel about carousels the way others feel about roller coasters. If you restore it, they will come.

Similarly, there is population of people who love to ride vintage trains.

Brenton McDowell, 2, could not keep his eyes off the spinning

carousel Sunday even long enough to get his picture taken with

his mom, Esther Jean-Louis and his brother Branden Lors, 5.

So when you combine the working antique carousel with the pending construction of a platform for the Colebrookdale Railroad's Secret Valley Line across King Street in Memorial Park, and then add Manatawny Green mini-golf next door, and the Schuylkill River Trail, this starts to look like a fun place to hang out -- and, most importantly, spend some money.

So hat's off to the volunteers who have stuck with it for the 17 years it has taken to raise the money, restore the carousel, fix up the building and overcome the regulatory hurdles.

Through it all, the Carousel of Flavor is a reminder of the success many of us always knew you would achieve.

Now, I'll stop bloviating. Here are the Tweets (and videos) from yesterday's food festival.