Monday, April 19, 2010

Two Treehouses, April 1966

There's just something about having a house up in a tree! It's not for everyone of course. Swiss families like them, I'm told. As do adventurous boys. But I'm sure that many of you are neither boys nor Swiss, and you'd still like to have one.

Chip is just starting his way up the stairs to the first level of rooms on the Swiss Family Treehouse. I can hear that Swisskapolka now! That giant fig tree's air roots provide some handy additional support for staircases and a Rube Goldberg plumbing system that is a kinetic work of art (did Rolly Crump have anything to do with its design I wonder?). I used to love to try to identify the pieces of the wrecked ship that had been salvaged and incorporated into the arboreal abode.


Here's the perfect treehouse for boy adventurers like Chip or Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer did not do things in a small way, so he built an actual staircase rather than nailing pieces of lath or bits of boards into the trunk for a makeshift ladder. The house itself is made entirely of scrounged crates that were plentiful near the steamboat docks.

6 comments:

  1. And Chip is holding his complimentary map of the island in that second pic.

    It was very nice meeting you and your brother at the Knott's event, Major!

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  2. I can't tell you how many times I begged my father to build me a tree house. We had a large avacado tree in the backyard that was almost as big the the Swiss Family Robinson tree so I just knew that we could replicate it, LOL

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  3. Anonymous9:35 AM

    Loved both of these treehouses. I had several over the years, but nothing like these.

    Sad to lose the kinetic sculpture of the Swiss version, even sadder to lose it to a re-do for crummy movie like Tarzan.

    Bring Back The Swisskapolka!

    JG

    PS Hope you had a good time at Knotts. wished i could go.

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  4. Great photos - but... Chip is starting to scare me just like the twins in the Shinning! If I see him at Disneyland I'll digress into a bad Shelley Duvall impersonation!

    Great day at Knott's, it was cool hanging out with you & your brother!

    Word verification today is: sychapho ?

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  5. Very nice of Chip to hold the guidebook so those souvenir collectors among us could enjoy seeing it prominently displayed in its original context hehe

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  6. this attraction is very "Disney" to me...we are lucky to have the Swiss Family version still at WDW

    wonder if Chip is now a collecter and maybe still has the map? i know i would ;-)


    sounds like you guys had a good time yesterday...glad to hear it!

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