Trying to navigate a big amusement park with small children is about as much fun as digging your own eye out with a fork.

Places like Disney World and the Six Flags parks are great for the bigger kids and grown-ups, but when you’re under 42-inches tall, those huge rides and all the visual and auditory stimulation are just plain overwhelming.

Taking my 3-year-old daughter to see Mickey Mouse is more about creating an experience for me to remember. Our trip to the famous Florida landmark was fun, but it isn’t something I care to repeat anytime soon. Nor, in fact, can I—or most people—afford to repeat a trip that includes an average of $40 per-day, per person tickets. [Disney World tickets range from $71 per person for 10 and older, but are much cheaper if you by 3-day, 4-day, etc tickets]

Simple Pleasures at Memphis Kiddie Park in Brooklyn, Ohio

You’ll find me at Memphis Kiddie Park every July until my wee one grows too big to ride the 11 vintage amusements that dot this six-and-a-half acre park located in Brooklyn, Ohio, an inner-ring suburb of Cleveland.

Established in the middle of the last century, the park is a charming throwback featuring rides like the pony carts, spinning rockets and racecars. And my child adores it with a ferocity previously reserved for ice cream.

“We opened in the spring of 1952 and we’ve been operating continuously in the same location, with the same rides, since then,” says general manager Mike Kessel.

Close your eyes and listen to the calliope music and you could be right back in the era of Harry S. Truman and a time before anyone ever stepped foot on the moon.

The prices are as old-fashioned as the pristine rides, with $20 providing a full day’s worth of entertainment.

The park runs on a ticket system, and tickets will run you $1.40 apiece. For the best bang for your buck, buy the book of 25 for $21.50.

• The merry-go-round at Memphis Kiddie Park is a delight for both children and their parents.
• Courtesy of the Memphis Kiddie Park

How many tickets do you need per ride?

One.

One single ticket for each ride.

How can you beat it? And if your kid has a meltdown or naptime rolls around? Save your extra tickets.

“It doesn’t cost a penny to walk into the park,” Kessel says. “You can come and go as you please.”

Not only that, but the tickets never expire. So, say you come back, oh, 40 years later. That ticket book is still valid.

“We’ve had people hand us tickets from the fifties, and we still take them,” Kessel says, adding that a framed set of tickets from all the different decades is housed inside the ticket booth.

The rides at Memphis Kiddie Park are mostly limited to kids under 42-inches, but there are three rides that you can ride as a family. For some kids, the idea of getting on an amusement park ride without their parents can be a little scary.

If that’s the case, ease their fears by riding the train, merry-go-round or the Little Dipper rollercoaster with them.

• The Little Dipper is the oldest operating steel roller coaster in North America and is one of three attractions at the Memphis Kiddie Park without a height limit.
• Courtesy of the Memphis Kiddie Park

Ah, yes. The Little Dipper.

This ride just might be one of the most interesting in the nation; the Little Dipper is the oldest continuously operating steel children’s rollercoaster in the United States

This brief but whiplash-inducing ride happens to be a favorite of my daughter, who screams with delighted terror each and every time she rides it with her daddy.

Because me? Not so much a rollercoaster enthusiast. A bad back and a weak stomach make me less than an ideal riding companion.

However, Mark Cole, president of the American Coaster Enthusiasts, knows a thing or two about rollercoasters. He should, he’s been on more than 400 of them.

“It’s a fun little park and a fun little coaster,” Cole says. “The main attraction for us is the fact that it has been there for so long, and they do allow adults to ride it.”

In 2004, the American Coaster Enthusiasts held their annual convention in northeast Ohio, and attendees made a trip to Memphis Kiddie Park just to see the Little Dipper.

“We had a group that was close to 600 people,” Kessel recalls. “We’ve had people from all over the world come to see the coaster, people from Sweden, Great Britain, places like that.”

Just this summer, Kessel fielded a phone call from France asking about the park’s yearly schedule.

If you are in the Cleveland area anytime between mid-April and the middle of October, you can and should make a visit to this family-owned park. And while you’re there, be sure to check out some of the city’s other attractions, like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra.