It’s a normal day inside the Coolidge Park Carousel building.
Next to the fountain where children cool off on a warm, late-spring day, large fans create a breeze in the domed circular centerpiece of the beautiful park.
After a few children and adults choose which fanciful animal to ride on the antique carousel, Bud Jones rings a bell and everything starts going around and around. A whir of motion, music and color stirs nostalgia in the adults while it brings delight to the faces of the children who ride.
Coolidge Park Carosel attendant Bud Jones takes up tickets as he works at the popular vintage attraction Wednesday, May 27, 2015, in Chattanooga.At age 75, Jones has retired. Twice. But he still has a part-time job taking up tickets and helping people ride the Coolidge Park Carousel. In his previous careers, he helped people ride to the moon, and then he worked as a professional killer for a short time.
Jones retired from the space program, working for Chrysler and building valves for NASA at Cape Kennedy for use in the rockets that sent the Apollo astronauts to the moon. When that ended, he moved back to Chattanooga, his home town, where he worked for a pest control company for a little while. Now he faces an easier task.