Summer’s Shining Memories: Visiting Paris

 

Summer’s Shining Memories:  Visiting Paris (Illinois)

 

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

 

 

From my family’s hometown of Blanford, Indiana, which was directly on the Central Indiana-Illinois borderline , a car ride of about fifteen minutes took us to the Hoosier town of Clinton, located on the banks of the Wabash River.  If our car was headed west, a fifteen-minute ride took us to Paris–the county seat of Edgar County, Illinois.  Although we much more often traveled to Clinton for shopping, library, church, events, Aragon Swimming Pool, movie theatres, and high school, we went to Paris, a town serving expansive farming communities, for other reasons.

 

One reason that we limited our trips to Paris was the “antique” road to arrive there:  one side or lane of the road was made of bricks, and the other was simply a gravel lane.  During my youth of the 1950s and 1960s, the customary practice was that most drivers heading to Paris would drive on the brick side of the road–the wrong side of the road–until spotting an on-coming vehicle.  Then, the movement of the car from the brick lane to the rough gravel always seemed somewhat tricky to me.  Frankly, sitting in the back seat, I found this mode of travel sufficiently nerve-racking and sometimes even frightening.  Thus, there had to be a good reason to go to the “Paris of the Midwest.”

 

From at least 1962, we took our pet dogs to the Dart and Taylor (later Dart, Taylor, and Climer) Veterinary Clinic.  In downtown Paris, the county courthouse was in the middle of a square with shops and businesses on the outer four sides of the square.  One reason we shopped in Paris was McCoy’s Shoe Store, where through the earlier decades, my parents purchased many pairs of shoes for their two daughters.

 

With summer memories in mind, the main reason we journeyed to Paris was Twin Lakes Amusement Park, the development of which began in 1895.  Amazingly, on January 7, 1896, “Reservoir Park” opened on the east side of Illinois Route One, at the very north edge of the city.  Charles P. Hitch, the developer, operated two boats on the reservoir:  The City of Paris and The Mary Martha.  After a drought, the second lake, on the east side, was developed.  Thus, Reservoir Park became Twin Lakes (Amusement) Park, containing 163 acres of water and 40 acres of park land.

 

Watching the Fourth of July fireworks over the lake with my cousin Carole, other family members, and/or friends was a dazzling summer treat.  Of course, some people watched the display in the night sky from their boats.  Although we often went to the fireworks displays at the football stadium of Clinton High School or at the Memorial Stadium in Terre Haute (Indiana), the view of the fireworks over the lake was especially festive with reflections upon the water.

 

At Twin Lakes Park, we also enjoyed some picnics under the huge shelter and some picnics right along the lake.  At times, the swans and ducks that looked so peaceful on the lake showed another side of their personalities on shore, near our picnic tables.  After years of picnics at Twin Lakes with family, school classes, or the Royal Neighbor Juveniles–my high school friends and I went to the park for picnics and games of miniature golf.  Additionally, we rented paddleboats to venture out onto the lake.  Although the park included a beach, swimming area, arcade, and dance hall–we preferred Clinton’s Aragon Swimming Pool for our swimming.

 

In earlier years, we took younger cousins to Twin Lakes to enjoy the kiddie rides:  an impressive carousel, a train on an oval track, little cars going round and round on a circular platform, and a relatively small roller coaster.  Another ride for the more daring pre-teens and teenagers was the “High Swings,” a mechanized ride–one my sister and I never tried, but my cousin Carole did.  In the 1980s, when my nephews were quite young, we took them to the park for the rides, miniature golf, and fishing.

 

One of my clearest recollections of Twin Lakes Park was the stand where cotton candy was sold.  For a number of years, the same lady made and sold the cotton candy.  The hot, humid air of the Illinois summer and the heat from the machine that spun the cotton candy made the face of the worker rosy pink.  With her white and gray hair, white uniform, stainless steel machine, white countertop, and some pink of the stand, the image was a blend of white, pink, and gray.  Her gentle hand formed the cotton candy around a white paper cone–absolutely no plastic bag nor plastic cone was involved.  Her cotton candy was the most delicious I ever tasted.  I cannot imagine eating cotton candy from a plastic bag, as the sweet treat is sold today.  Actually, I cannot imagine eating more than one taste nowadays.  During the four-day Bastille Days Festival in my neighborhood this summer, I could periodically smell the distinctive sweet fragrance of cotton candy; and I immediately thought of the wonderful and pretty cotton candy from Twin Lakes.  The fragrance and memory were enough:  I bought no cotton candy at Milwaukee’s Bastille Days.

 

Upon leaving the park grounds, we took the winding road around the lake and looked at the lake cottages.  Then, I thought of how neat living so near the lake would be.  At that time, I never imagined that someday I would live just four blocks from the lakefront of Lake Michigan.

 

If we saved enough room for ice cream, we always stopped at the Dairy Queen [trademark], located just a short drive south on the street (Route One) from the park.

 

A-a-a-ah, those were happy summer days.

 

At one point in the 1980s, the merry-go-round was dismantled; and the carousel horses were sold to a park in a southern state.  Fortunately, some of the carousel horses were sold or auctioned individually; and the Edgar County Historical Society acquired the carousel horse named “Chief.”  My dad and I really did want one of those antique carousel horses.  I could just imagine one of the finely sculptured horses on the west end of our large front porch of our Blanford home.  Nevertheless, all I have of these merry-go-round memories is a carousel music box.

 

A few years ago, when my sister, my Leader Dog Zoe, and I traveled through Illinois and Indiana, we went to Paris to place flowers on the graves of my two pet dogs Chico (a buff-colored Cocker Spaniel) and Chelsea (a white with cinnamon-colored spots Cavalier King Charles Spaniel), as well as for Keller, my first Leader Dog (Golden Retriever) at the pet cemetery of the veterinary clinic.  After that tearful stop, we proceeded to the other side of Paris and drove slowly through Twin Lakes Park to see how much the area had changed.  Currently, Twin Lakes is being rejuvenated with an all-abilities playground and Tiger Falls Splash Park.  Of course, in my summer memories, Twin Lakes appears exactly the same and smells the same as the park did so long ago.

 

Some people dream of going to the “real” Paris in France or to other European countries, but I hope to someday return to this Paris of the Midwest and my Indiana.

 

POST-SCRIPT/TRIVIA:  The following states have a city, town, or unincorporated community named Paris:  Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio (two), Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin (two).

 

Enjoy your summer memories and summer 2018!

Alice and Leader Dog Willow

 

July 25, 2018, Wednesday

 

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