Ruth said for many years she and her late sister, Gwen Mugridge, would take their nieces and nephews to visit Tuscora Park at New Philadelphia where the children would ride the carousel. The children fondly named Tuscora Park “Aunt Gwen’s Park.”
One niece in particular enjoyed imagining the horses were real. The song grew out of that observation.
Ruth, 80, is a retired teacher of English, French, speech and dramatics. She said the opening lines of the song, “When I was little I found a place where horses ran with endless grace,” provided the inspiration for her third book.
“This book celebrates the imagination of children who pretend they are riding real horses,” Ruth said.
The book is 32 pages, with 28 pages of color illustrations. Ruth enlisted the help of artist Catherine “Cathie” Fithian of Navarre, a Fairless High graduate, to illustrate the book.
About a year ago, Ruth was promoting her books, “Dark Brown is the River” and “On Goes the River: The Somerset Years,” during a local artists’ day at Creekside Gardens and Gifts at Strasburg. It was there she met Fithian who was displaying her artwork.
Fithian, a retired administrator of a Stark County juvenile attention system, bought one of Ruth’s books and Ruth signed up for art lessons. Fithian offers private and group art lessons at the Linden Tree Fine Art Studio at North Canton.
The two women collaborated by sharing their talents of drawing, coloring and composition. Ruth had shared her dream of creating a children’s picture book based on the lyrics of her song.
In June, Fithian, began creating paintings
using water colors, colored pencils and pen and
ink. Ruth also painted some of the
illustrations. Fithian finished the paintings in
September.
Painting the illustrations was not an easy task.
Fithian said the paintings challenged and
stretched her artistic abilities.
In May, before the parked opened for the
season, 11 boys and girls, ages 18 months to
nine years, were assembled at the park. Ruth’s
daughter, Mary Buckley of Lima, took about 240
photos of the children on the motionless
carousel. A second session was held in July.
In addition to the children, carousel operator
Dave Miller is featured in the paintings.
The carousel was built in 1928 by Hershell Spillman who carved the galloping wooden horses.
The carousel was brought to Tuscora Park in 1945. A page about the carousel is included in the book.
