Amusement park emerges from COVID-19 quiet

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This article was published 10/07/2021 (1739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Ferris wheel crested the treetops like a multi-coloured sun, and broiling heat blanched Tinkertown as though the sun were indeed so close.

Despite temperatures exceeding 30 C, mothers and fathers gathered their children and flocked in droves to the amusement park.

Outside the fence, cars and trucks parked in a dusty lot enclosed by fields of wild canola. Inside rang out the clank and clatter of the Gunslinger, a huge centrifugal swing whipping around some of the older, or at least taller, kids.

“Here for the thrill,” said 11-year-old Tin Omelan, as he waited in line for the Gunslinger. Omelan was an experienced thrill-seeker, it seemed — his expression remained cool and calm as the ride flung him through the air.

Because it falls into that oh-so-specific category of a public place where people go, the pandemic has hit Tinkertown hard. But the park is now emerging from the quietude of COVID-19. Soft country music plays over loudspeakers and gleeful screams cut through the murmur of the crowd. It has again become a town of kids; adults are merely tourists soaking in the joys of youth.

“I like seeing these people,” said Tinkertown co-owner Randy Saluk with a grin. This year the park has been doing about 60 per cent of the business they did pre-pandemic, said Saluk. He wasn’t sure how much more that is than last year, when COVID-19 was newer and before vaccines rolled out, but it’s certainly a step up.

“We’ll break even,” he said. “We’re not going to lose money like we did last year. It is what it is. People got paid that needed to get paid and stuff like that, but you don’t want to just turn the wheels for nothing.”

A staff shortage is also making things tough this year, said Saluk. Because he can’t find enough staff, the park no longer opens seven days a week. Except for one Monday in July, it sits vacant on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. That’s after a sputtering start to the season at the end of June.

“Usually we have a lot of people applying,” said Saluk. “I need about another 40 kids just to make another shift.”

Pre-pandemic, the park would also cater to out-of-towners, many from Grand Forks, said Saluk. That clientele is still stuck south of the border, and even Canadian travellers are more scarce these days.

But Tinkertown occupies its own space in the Winnipeg ethos, and with that, comes loyal customers. Many people said they bring their kids often — whether to ride the merry-go-round, which one little girl aptly called “the horsey ride;” or to jump on the little yellow train, its pink-shirted conductor waving to people along the way; or to eat a hot dog.

Laine Burgess is part of that loyal base. She held the hand of her niece Zoe as they wandered around the park. Burgess used to work the concession stand, and her teenage daughter had followed suit and was working somewhere in the park Saturday.

Burgess said it was “awesome” to work at the park when she was younger. “It was like teenage land,” she laughed.

But for Burgess, Saturday was a day for a renewed sense of normalcy.

“It’s just good to be out and around people,” she said.

Nathalie Roche and her daughter Léa cooled off in front of an industrial fan with a cool mist being blown through it. They smiled and spread their arms wide.

They were there for a birthday party, and they were making the most of it.

“We did the bumper cars and that was fun. We did the rollercoasters, but that was her first time, and that was a little too fast,” said Roche, with Léa clutching her knee. “It’s a bit hot, but it’s great. We’re enjoying the day.”

 

cody.sellar@freepress.mb.ca