I've had calliope music running through my head for hours and hours. For some strange reason, my heart is in the land of carousels. My favorite is in a backwater amusement park in central PA, Knoebel's Grove. The magnificent carousel there dates from the early 1900s, with some of the most beautifully hand-carved, bejeweled horses I've ever been astride. My dad's company held its company picnic there every August, and as company kids, we got enough free tickets to ride rides all day. My day was not complete without at least 10 go-rounds on the carousel.

The teens always took the outside horses and competed for the elusive brass ring. I preferred a steed that went up and down. I picked my mount very carefully, never content with a plain brown horse. I wanted the midnight black horse with medieval armour and the most lush real-horsehair tail, or a cream-colored pony with delicate grey hooves, or one of countless other "favorites." The brassy, quasi-military, old-timey music seemed of another world altogether, from a time before tv, when the simple pleasures were magic. What was it like to be a little girl in 1910?

My favorite part of the movie "Mary Poppins" is when the carousel horses carry Mary, Bert, Michael and Jane bouncing off into the countryside. What a lark! If I had three wishes, I'd probably waste one of them to gain such a steed.

If you're ever in central PA in the summer, you've got to visit Knoebels. Even going back as an adult, I find it hasn't lost its innocent power. Tucked in the woods, dotted with picnic groves (they actually let you bring your own food), scattered with fun rides (and cheap!! $15 worth of tickets will last two adults all day), and full of kitschy eateries with all manner of tempting junk, it is, according to my husband, home of two of the BEST wooden roller coasters.