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The Brass Ring (from Wikipedia)
A brass ring is a small grabbable ring that a dispenser presents to a carousel rider during the course of a ride. Usually there are a large number of iron rings and one brass one, or just a few. It takes some dexterity to grab a ring from the dispenser as the carousel rotates. The iron rings can be tossed at a target as an amusement. Typically, getting the brass ring gets the rider some sort of prize when presented to the operator. The prize often is a free repeat ride. The phrase to grab the brass ring is derived from this device.
Although there are a lot of carousels extant, only a handful of carousels still have brass ring dispensers.
These include rides in: Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard (pictured above), Watch Hill in South County, Rhode Island, and Coney Island in Brooklyn—shortly anyway.
I’m posting this all after realizing that this is one of those things. A piece of Americana that may have fallen between the cracks. And with it, the thrill of the brass ring. That’s right, I said thrill. I said it.
