As a child growing up in the 1980s, Marlene Irvin took many trips to Joyland, an amusement park in her hometown of Wichita, Kansas. She got excited the moment her family drove into Joyland's parking lot. "The carousel circling at the entrance to the park was always the 1 for me," Marlene said. "I could watch the horses for hours."
Joyland certainly made a/an 2 impression on Marlene, as she got her "first real job" years later at Wichita's Chance Manufacturing, the largest maker of amusement park rides in the world at the time. Marlene started in the fiberglass workshop, where the carousel horses' frames, along with parts for Ferris wheels, roller coasters, and other rides, were pieced together. She 3 found her way to Chance's art and decoration department, becoming one of the lead horse artists. Then, after working at Chance for nearly fifteen years, Marlene decided to start her own business, focusing on carousel restoration.
Around the same time, Joyland started experiencing a 4 in attendance. At last, to the heartbreak of Wichitans young and old, Joyland 5 after more than fifty years of operation. Local preservation organizations purchased some of the park's historical items, and Joyland's thirty-six carousel horses were donated to Botanica, a Wichita-owned botanical garden. Botanica asked Marlene to 6 the old, broken horses, and she accepted the challenge.
As Marlene finished each horse, Botanica 7 them for the public to see. Although they looked 8 compared to their glory (辉煌) days at Joyland, thanks to Marlene's artistic efforts, the horses impressed observers even more than they had before. When native Wichitans saw them, their most 9 question was: "Will we be able to ride them?" Even as 10, they remembered riding the horses at Joyland when they were kids.
Marlene always smiled and answered: "They've been waiting for you to come back."
