Friday, June 21, 2013

Early 1970's Selection

Here are 3 more photos from the early 1970's!

I never get tired of seeing the little Nature's Wonderland Mine Trains. This slide was labeled "Western Town Disneyland", which is accurate-ish.


And this one was labeled "Going aboard for ride on Pirate Ship". I hope they were not too terrified by the tuna sandwiches! Maybe they thought this was the entrance to "Pirates of the Caribbean"?


Thank goodness this one was helpfully labeled "Boat ride", so anybody out there who thought that this was the pack mules can just forget about it right now.

14 comments:

Nanook said...

Gosh, I wish I could have visited Disneyland with that family. Just imagine how much 'swamp land in Florida' I could have sold them before we left the park-!

Drat - another missed business opportunity.

Chiana_Chat said...

Phew sure glad they cleared that last one up! Although I tink they went about the same speed...?

Didn't think the snacks and meals on the tuna boat were that expensive then that they could fairly say they were taken for a ride.

Welp 'scuse me gotta go git some Irish Stew at Mother Murphy Meals. 'sides, I need to have a chat with her about those laws of hers, they're ridiculous.

TokyoMagic! said...

Maybe when they got their slides back from being developed and they went to label them, they thought the Captain Hook's Galley shot was The Columbia?

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Great shots for TGIF major.

I'll have hash and eggs at Mother Murphy's what time does she open?
(used to be my guilty pleasure at the monorail café)

Is that the cousin it family in the red motor boat?

Chuck said...

Reminds me of a time I overheard a young couple at DL with a younger child (duh!) trying to figure out where to go next in the Park. "You want to go back over to Babyland and ride the kiddie rides?" I'm sure you could hear my DL purist's teeth grinding as far away as Knott's.

I wonder how long after the trip these slides were developed, viewed, and labeled? The passage of time can ravage your memory, and if these folks weren't rabid Disneyland fans like so many of the GDBers, the names and scenes probably wouldn't stick.

I remember back in the day in our family how there would be little-used cameras that sat with film in them for sometimes years. I recall my mother giving me a Kodak Instamatic for a school field trip in 1976 that already had film in it. When we had the film developed, the first two frames had been shot in 1971 and the whole roll was in black & white.

Chuck said...

The third photo has got me thinking back to the discussion a few weeks ago about the Columbia, underwater tracks, and wheels.

I know the Motor Boat Cruise boats ran on an underwater track, but that dock in the center of the photo looks too large and functional to merely be theming. Were out of service boats tied up there? I have no memories of this because, sadly, I never rode it (or Adventure Thru Inner Space, but that's a different story).

If they did tie boats up at that dock, how did they get there - a spur track? By disconnecting from the track and then being pulled over by rope? Teleportation?

Anybody know?

Melissa said...

The boats are strapped to the backs of mules wearing scuba gear.

I have the feeling this family's cat and dog were named "Cat" and "Dog."

K. Martinez said...

I was bummed with the removal of the Pack Mules- I mean Motor Boat Cruise. I always seem to get the two confused.

The Motor Boat Cruise reflects an era when not everything was about branding. I still miss the sight of these little boats doing their turn-a-round next the Submarine Lagoon. Just more motion and energy removed from the park.

Tom said...

They probably labeled their picture of Sleeping Beauty Castle as "Epcot"

I like that shot of the Pirate Ship - I don't think I've seen any others from that angle. It really brings out the blue.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, this was an interesting family… almost 1/3 of their photos were (boring) views taken while visiting an ashram in India. Obviously George Harrison had a big influence on them!

Chiana, the mules had to have been faster than the motor boats. Those things were sloooooow. And I'm sure that people complained about the expensive 50 cent tuna sandwiches. Just wait until 2013, folks! I have no idea what Irish Stew is (lamb and potatoes?), but I'll bet it's good.

TokyoMagic!, that had occurred to me, it wouldn't be the first time The Columbia was referred to as a "pirate ship".

Alonzo, hash and eggs, you and my dad would get along just fine. And Cousin It is more of a blond, so that must be a friend of his.

Chuck, from now on I am calling Fantasyland "Babyland". And you are right about "regular" people's knowledge of the park. Is it Disneyland or Disney World? Let's go ride the pirate ride! I like the shrinking ride! They don't care as long as they have fun, which is OK of course. And my mom recently developed some film that was in an old digital camera, they had been taken at least 8 or 9 years ago, because my niece and nephew were still very young children.

Chuck again, I think you are right about the dock in the photo being used for boat storage… they loaded at a different place. In these pictures you can see how the boats loaded and unloaded:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/bananaphone5000/GORILLLAS/Motorboatsmore7-62a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/bananaphone5000/GORILLLAS/4-62mobosA.jpg

And yes, from what I have seen, there was a spur track that would redirect the boats to and from the storage area.

Melissa, are you sure they weren't scuba divers wearing mules? Everyone loves fuzzy slippers.

K. Martinez, if the Motor Boats were around today, I wonder if they would be given a Toy Story theme, or something like that?

Anonymous said...

I think I had a mule named "Motor Boat" back on the ranch.

Hard to recall for sure.

Thanks Major, this is really a hoot.

JG

Chuck said...

Major - you're right as long as people are having fun, that' OK by me, too. That was Walt's vision to begin with.

Thanks for the photo links on the MBC. Not sure why I'm suddenly obsessed with underwater rail-based attraction operational minutiae, but it's scratching the itch. I'm taking this Disneyland obsession thing to a whole new level. If nothing else, it will give me more stories to bore my wife to sleep with.

Those digital cameras are the worst! I'm always forgetting to take the film out of them. :-)

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, he was probably great for water skiing.

Chuck, D'OH! Ha ha, I typed "digital camera" without even realizing it.

Snow White Archive said...

After the "Boat Ride", this family took a turn on the "Train Ride" whose "raised tracks" we can see overhead in the 3rd photo. ;)