Thursday, August 14, 2014

More So-So Photos from August 1969

Oof, many of the pix from this lot from 1969 really are dull. As I mentioned before, my strategy (for some reason) is to get through the bad ones, saving the better ones for later. It makes no sense, I am fully aware of that.

Let's get started with this one. Two teenagers are strolling past the French Market, perhaps on their way to New Orleans Station. It's nice the the planters double as benches… moms and kids take a break from the August sun by claiming a little bit of shade beneath the tree. 


If this one wasn't so overexposed it might actually be a good picture. The skulls atop those poles look tiny. Maybe it's an optical illusion, or maybe they are 5/8 scale.


This is not a good picture, but at least it shows something that you can't see anymore, and that is the inside of Fort Wilderness on Tom Sawyer Island. The original fort is long-gone (supposedly a victim of age and insects), and it was replaced with a strange-looking structure used by "Fantasmic!' cast members.


Looking across the river we can just make out the tracks where the Mine Train Thru Nature's Wonderland traveled. Cascade Peak has all but vanished in the glare, but one of its waterfalls can be seen.


8 comments:

Chiana_Chat said...

They are very welcome glimpses of the Disneyland I'm nostalgic about, please be assured they're being enjoyed. :)

K. Martinez said...

These are great because they're not the usual stuff. I don't think you've had a French Market image this good before. Love the trash can and lamppost. The French Market is my favorite place to dine on the west side of the Park. While enjoying a meal, one can hear the arrival and departure of a Disneyland Railroad trains at the Frontierland Station and the whistle blow of the Mark Twain. all while listening to the live band out in the open air. Pure magic!

I like the last image of vanishing Cascade Peak. It's the kind of photo that if it was randomly presented in a non-Disneyland subject, you couldn't guess it right away.

So whether overexposed, bad composition or whatever, They're still a joy to see. Thanks, Major.

Chuck said...

I have to echo Chiana & Ken - the pictures of long-gone vistas that aren't postcard-worthy are still treasures in our eyes. And any day I can see my beloved Fort Wilderness is automatically at least seven percentage points more scrumptious than it would have been otherwise.

The garbage can stands out to me because of its signage - "waste paper." I was originally going to make some kind of quip about what guests were supposed to do with plastic trash, and then I realized that in 1969 there might not have been that much plastic waste to begin with. Cups, food packaging, and maybe even straws would still have been predominately paper. Individually-wrapped plastic cookies and the like were still decades into the future. So guests would have been able to easily follow the label, discarding their waste paper in the can after throwing their leftover food in the bushes.

Looking directly behind the garbage can, I think I see one of those creepy SpectroMagic fairy characters in a rare daytime appearance...on the wrong coast...twenty-two years early.

Melissa said...

I love pictures of empty settings like that shot of the Fort. Gives me an opportunity to add people.

JG said...

I really like the French Market pic, I feel much like Ken in my nostalgia for that place. I make it a point to eat or enjoy a coffee on that patio. Many happy hours there.

@Chuck, re trash; I don't recall garbage details well enough to say whether there was more or less plastic then as now.

I do recall that the NOS Mint Julep drinks came in a clear plastic cup with a frosted Disneyland logo of the castle. This was the only drink served in this container, IIRC.

These were not very sturdy, but if handled with care, could survive the trip home. I kept several over the years and recall drinking iced tea out of them at home. Eventually they would crack, but we could always get more next summer at Disneyland...

Wish I had one now.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

Chiana, thanks!

K. Martinez, I have at least one image of the French Market, but it is from the 1990's, so you make a good point. These photos went over so well that I won't feel guilty when I post the next batch!

Chuck, Fort Wilderness is one of those places that is hard to explain to people and get them to understand why it was neat. It might help to have seen it as a kid, but I loved it all along. As for "waste paper", you are right, they did not use plastic. I distinctly remember buying individually wrapped cookies, but they were wrapped in animals skins covered in tallow.

Melissa, I was almost afraid that you WEREN'T going to use sad (or happy) Linda, so I am both glad and relieved!

JG, the only plastic cups that I recall for the mint juleps were generic clear plastic. No frosted Disneyland logo. It's too bad you didn't manage to save at least one cup - who knows, maybe it would be a collector's item now. It definitely qualifies as "ephemera".

Anonymous said...

Having worked Pirates, and getting my mint juleps for free because my wife-to-be worked a summer at the julep bar, I have vague recollections of those frosted plastic glasses.

KS

Melissa said...

Now look at them cast members: that's the way you do it.
You load the riders on the P.O.C.
That ain't workin'; that's the way you do it -
Juleps for nothin' and your mint for free.

Now that ain't workin'; that's the way you do it.
Lemme tell you, them guys clean up.
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a crack in your plastic cup.

We got to cruise through the back side of water,
Shrunken noggin deliveries,
We gotta move past snapping hippos,
We gotta move through the old J.C.