Meet the man who has been painting Idlewild's carousel for decades
Idlewild Park in Ligonier officially opens its doors for the season on Saturday, May 17 and one person who will be there, as he has been for nearly half a century, is Ed Ostroski.
When asked how long he has been coming to Idlewild Park, Ostroski said, "For 48 years almost." He then jokingly added, "I don't know, I don't know if I want to do the math." For this 71-year-old, work and amusement go hand in hand.
For nearly five decades, Ostroski has worked at Idlewild Park, a place that has been delighting families each summer since it opened its gates back in 1878. While he says he has dabbled in almost every job the park has to offer over the years, Ostroski has made his primary home for the last few decades at the park's paint shop, making, fixing and often maintaining by hand all the colorful things that make this 147-year-old amusement park special.
"I grew up, came here as a child," Ostroski said. "I would come to Story Book Forest and school picnics at the park. I was really fascinated by seeing somebody driving through in a golf cart one day and I thought, that would be a nice job. So, here I am almost 48 years later."
Ostroski has a degree in art education from Edinboro State Teachers College, now Pennsylvania Western University, Edinboro. He says that when he graduated in the early 1970s, there were not any art teaching jobs available.
"My mother saw an ad for a painter, an artist at Story Book Forest," Ostroski said. "I applied. They asked me a lot of questions and I said, 'Yeah, I can learn how to paint signs.' So, I did, but it took a few years."
Ostroski says that while no one day is ever the same, and his painting duties vary as he works on projects both large and small, one of his main objectives each year is repainting and touching up the wooden horses of Idlewild's famous carousel.
"A lot of people don't realize [the horses] are made of wood," Ostroski said. "I still get people that think they are made out of fiberglass. Of course, they have probably seen a lot of fiberglass carousels."
Ostroski says he repaints about six horses a year and while the paint is drying on one horse, Ostroski travels the mile through the park on his golf cart to check on and inspect the rest of the 48-horse merry-go-round.
Most of the horses date back to the late 1920s. The carousel itself was built in 1931 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company and is now dedicated as a landmark by the Westmoreland County Historical Society.
It is because of the love and attention this ride has gotten over the course of time from this caretaker that these horses are able to keep rotating forward and looking almost new.
For Ostroski, who has made this park special for almost half a century, his life's ride, much like the carousel, continues going round and round, and he shows no signs of wanting to get off.
"I feel like I am retired, or semi-retired, when I am here working. I enjoy what I do. They are pretty generous to keep me around and I think they want me to try to do as many of the carousel horses as I can, and I am going to do that for as long as I can. I just hope, I can keep doing it."
For more information on Idlewild Park, click here.
