A big fiberglass giraffe looming over the Kiddy Kingdom: Cleveland Remembers

Written by admin on June 17, 2011 – 8:57 pm

A big fiberglass giraffe looming over the Kiddy Kingdom: Cleveland Remembers Bryan Miles, one year old, riding the Cedar Point carousel with his mother, Cynthia Bertrand, and his aunt, Mary Miles, in 1984.

For as long as I can remember, Cedar Point has been a vacation destination for my Parma-based family. We owned a trailer lot at Bay Point in adjacent Marblehead and would make the short trip several times a year.

Being rolled into the park in a little red wagon, bags with snacks and ponchos surrounding my tiny frame enveloping me in a gentle embrace, makes me feel like a king. As we enter the midway, the smell of cotton candy, salt water taffy and large-cut french fries fill the senses.

As we round the corner past the vast array of skill and chance booths, I see it. Towering over Kiddy Kingdom, a giant, life-like monstrosity of a fiberglass giraffe. For years, that giraffe signified childhood, innocence and security. Even as the roller coasters popped up around the park and I grew tall enough to bump the height requirement line, I always looked to the giraffe as if he was my lifelong friend.

I’m not entirely sure if that giraffe still towers over the Kiddy Kingdom carousel, as I haven’t been there since 2006, but this year my own family and I are headed to The Point to make the same fond memories I remember of an innocent age before cell phones, constant war, and adult responsiblity. Many things remind me of my wonderful childhood and all the great places my family was blessed to be able to visit, but the giraffe is a symbol that reminds me that no matter how bad things are, or how many responsibilites I now shoulder as a husband, father and Soldier, that giraffe will always symbolize simplicity, Cedar Point, and me…staring up out of that little red wagon at my best friend.

– Bryan Miles, South Carolina

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