It had been many years since Dorothy Burnett had ridden the historic 1912 C.W. Parker Carousel.

Burnett and the carousel share a common past - both used to live on the Pacific National Exhibition lands at Happyland, the amusement park that was demolished in 1957.

Happyland opened in 1926, and Burnett moved there with her parents and three brothers when she was eight years old, on Oct. 31, 1930.

Her father, James Robertson, had been hired as superintendent of the amusement park.

"It was a different life than other people," Burnett says, adding she didn't realize how different at the time, and took it for granted.

Burnett grew up working at the park with her brothers. When she was 14, she worked at the dance hall and was also a waitress on occasion.

Once, her father offered her the chance to sell tickets for a ride and worked a lesson into it for her.

When she went back to the office with her cash box after her shift, her father told her there was $2 missing and it would have to be deducted from her wages.

That evening, after Burnett had complained to her mother and been teased by her brothers, her father informed her that he had taken the $2 out before her shift started.

The lesson - always count your change at the beginning of your shift.

But it wasn't all work.

When the park opened for the spring and summer season of 1931, Burnett and her brothers discovered that customers riding the Giant Dipper would often lose their change.

Burnett and her brothers went to the extent of pulling out shovels to dig for the change and used bubblegum on a stick to retrieve coins that fell between the wooden slats of the sidewalk, she says.

The Robertsons left Happyland nine years later. Burnett, who now lives in Kelowna, was 17.

She visited the carousel at its new home at the Burnaby Village Museum last Friday, during a visit from Kelowna with her daughter, Beverly Chicoine, for the PNE's 100th anniversary.

"This place brings back memories," she says of the Deer Lake area, mentioning her in-laws had lived in the neighbourhood. She could remember when ice was cut out of Deer Lake in the winter, and sold.

Burnett has recently written a book, Shoot the Chute, about her time at Happyland.

Chicoine helped Burnett write the book by asking for her stories and pressing her to preserve them for the family, Burnett says.

"If it hadn't been for my daughter, there wouldn't be a book," she says.

Burnett and Chicoine were in town last week to attend the PNE and saw Wayne Newton perform Thursday night, Chicoine says.

Dianne McLeod, with the museum, as well as members of the Friends of the Carousel, was extremely glad to meet Burnett when she visited.

Burnett, Chicoine and McLeod climbed aboard the ride, which is 98 years old this year, for one go-around.

Fittingly, Burnett's horse was named James - the same name as her father.