Nice Snapshots, September 1971
I recently acquired a nice big bunch of photos (snapshots rather than slides) from Disneyland. Nearly 100 of them, from various years and different photographers! None of them are mind-blowing, but many are fun and nostalgic. But I won't get to those for a little while.
Meanwhile, let's continue looking at a series of snapshots from September 1971. We'll begin with this nice shot taken from a Skyway bucket as we head towards the Matterhorn, with the Alice ride below us.
Meanwhile, over in Frontierland... that Mark Twain just keeps on going.
9 comments:
Need this pretty sunshine.....its 8 degrees here in Pittsburgh this morning. So ready for winter to be over already. :-(
With the white sky and the white rooftops below, the first view made me think instantly that it really was taken in a winter wonderland, maybe say Vail or some other ski resort town. Aside from the fact that the riders are wearing shirt sleeves, I am totally believing it!!
The Mark Twain is so majestic; I love riding on the lazy river for a respite from the hustle and bustle
Thanks, Major, for making it a warmer start to my day! :-)
That's great news about the new snapshots acquisition, Major. Hopefully the blog has a few more years left in it yet! And, as Nancy said, today's shots are a warm and pleasant entree into a cold, cold week (we've just gotten our first blast of proper cold weather in London over the last few days). Thanks for brightening up a January Monday!
Both of these are great, particularly the Mark Twain with that gorgeous, rippled reflection in the water. Note the NWRR tracks to the left of the Twain and a glimpse of Rainbow Ridge to the right behind the trees.
Don't recall ever noticing that light pole visible underneath the larger yellow bucket to our right in the first photo. Just shows the particular care Disney takes when lighting public spaces to create mood - no standard streetlights here.
There are two yellow Skyway buckets visible in that first photo, which has my OCD wondering - was there a particular color order the buckets went in? Or did they put them on the cable in any order, as long as there weren't any two of the same color within a couple of gondolas?
The Skyway over Fantasyland snapshot illustrates Disneyland perfection. It never got any better than this. Same for the Mark Twain scene. Glad to hear you've received 100 snapshots. It seems that every time you get near the end of the line, new material miraculously appears. That's great news! Thanks, Major.
Seeing that picture of the Mark sent me back to the days of when I worked it. I can hear the whistle and feel the warmth of the day. September was always a great transition month from the Summer crowds. The drop in attendance immediately on and after Labor Day was amazing to experience. And for a couple weeks longer the park was essentially operating under Summer hours with all the activities. It was a great time to visit or work there. Trust me!
KS
Nancy, oof, 8 degrees… reminds me of when I lived near Harrisburg when I was a kid. Waiting for the school bus was always fun! Disneyland is lots of things, but a winter wonderland is not one of them, ha ha.
Pegleg Pete, it was just a stroke of luck! I don’t know about a few more years… I am approaching 10 years, and sometimes feel like “enough is enough”. But on other days I feel like I could just keep going. When I run out of stuff, it will definitely be time.
Chuck, I suppose we will find details like the glimpse of the NWRR track even more noteworthy now that the river is going to be changed… we’ll see how drastic it will feel. I have wondered the same thing about the Skyway buckets… presumably they tried to mix it up, though I’m sure they would sometimes get two of the same color in a row.
K. Martinez, don’t you feel sorry for the large number of people who never got to enjoy the Skyway? It has been nearly 16 years, I’m sure there are plenty of adults who either don’t remember it or never rode it. As for new material, it is definitely coming in slower and slower… not like the old days!
KS, your description of the days at the park after Labor Day is just how I want to remember all of my visits, even though we certainly went when it was plenty crowded. But we tried to plan it for the off season, and it was fantastic.
Oh shoot. I meant to reply this morning, so I'm not sure at this late hour who will get a chance to read this. With respect to Chuck's query re bucket ordering on the Skyway: My brother has told me of the times working the Skyway when it was slow and they made a game of shuffling the gondolas into numerical order by selectively pulling and dispatching them. My guess is that was some seriously slow times.
@Patrick Devlin, Even in this later hour I got a chance to read your comment and that's some cool information about working the Skyway. I always thought the loading was random and not based on color or numerical order. I always figured the numbering was for identifying the gondolas when reporting maintenance issues or performing maintenance/repair on them.
Patrick Devlin, at this still later hour, I really appreciate the info. I always come back to yesterday's post (and often the previous day's post, too) to see how the conversation developed after my last visit. I'm often surprised at the directions it takes and the sheer amount of arcane goodness that various readers volunteer. Thanks for being a part of all that!
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