LABOR OF LOVE
Christmas carnival display built by hand by his father
Paul Crate / News ChiefBill and Lottie Herrmann start all the lights and motors to bring the Christmas Carnival set up in the garage of their Poinciana to life on Tuesday. Herrmann's father, Bill Herrmann, Sr. built the carnival in 1945 by hand without the benefit of power tools. Tuesday December 06, 2011.
By MARY HURST
News Chief
Published: Wednesday, December 14, 2011
POINCIANA, FL - For a taste of an old fashioned Christmas carnival, look no further than Willits Herrmann's garage.
Appropriately enough, he and his wife, Lottie, live on Reindeer Drive.
Herrmann's father, Willits Sr., was an aircraft welder by trade. He began making the modern marvel in 1945 with scrap wood, plastic baby dolls, Erector Set motors and an old 45-rpm record player.
Every night, he'd disappear into a tiny closet under the stairs when they lived in Navy housing in South Philadelphia.
He made each part of his Christmas carnival by hand. And the scene was completed with Barnum and Bailey circus music playing in the background.
All these years later, all the parts still move. A carousel goes around, its horses rising and falling.
A ferris wheel also goes around and a rocketship ride spins with the help of the record player underneath. Herrmann Sr. added a sideshow in the 1960s.
Lights inside the 27-gauge train engine that runs on a three-rail track show people taking a ride around the carnival and through a tunnel.
A highway of moving toy cars, a school bus and a fire truck is in the distance.
"He loved to do that kind of thing," Lottie, 72, said of her father-in-law. "He made me a cedar chest when I was a 14."
She said she and her husband were childhood sweethearts, now married 52 years.
"I store it in wooden crates," Willits Herrmann said. "It takes me about a month to put it up every Christmas."
He's reduced the platform size from 6 feet-by-12 feet to a bit smaller 5 feet-by-10 feet so it will fit in his garage.READ MORE AT:http://www.newschief.com/article/20111214/NEWS/112145003/1021/news01?Title=Christmas-carnival-display-built-by-hand-by-his-father
POINCIANA, FL - For a taste of an old fashioned Christmas carnival, look no further than Willits Herrmann's garage.
Appropriately enough, he and his wife, Lottie, live on Reindeer Drive.
Herrmann's father, Willits Sr., was an aircraft welder by trade. He began making the modern marvel in 1945 with scrap wood, plastic baby dolls, Erector Set motors and an old 45-rpm record player.
Every night, he'd disappear into a tiny closet under the stairs when they lived in Navy housing in South Philadelphia.
He made each part of his Christmas carnival by hand. And the scene was completed with Barnum and Bailey circus music playing in the background.
All these years later, all the parts still move. A carousel goes around, its horses rising and falling.
A ferris wheel also goes around and a rocketship ride spins with the help of the record player underneath. Herrmann Sr. added a sideshow in the 1960s.
Lights inside the 27-gauge train engine that runs on a three-rail track show people taking a ride around the carnival and through a tunnel.
A highway of moving toy cars, a school bus and a fire truck is in the distance.
"He loved to do that kind of thing," Lottie, 72, said of her father-in-law. "He made me a cedar chest when I was a 14."
She said she and her husband were childhood sweethearts, now married 52 years.
"I store it in wooden crates," Willits Herrmann said. "It takes me about a month to put it up every Christmas."
He's reduced the platform size from 6 feet-by-12 feet to a bit smaller 5 feet-by-10 feet so it will fit in his garage.READ MORE AT:http://www.newschief.com/article/20111214/NEWS/112145003/1021/news01?Title=Christmas-carnival-display-built-by-hand-by-his-father
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