Tuesday, September 06, 2016

Snapshots, March 1974

(Sorry, folks, I forgot to set the "publish" time to the usual 12:01 AM. If Chuck hadn't alerted me, it wouldn't have published until 9:30 tonight!!)

Let's take a look a a few more vintage snapshots!

As you can tell by the woman's bell-bottoms, this is the 70's - 1974 to be exact. It can get a little bit chilly in March, which explains the sweaters and jackets (that red coat is pretty cool). I wonder if the park had just opened... the long shadows indicate that it is morning, and there is a logjam on the drawbridge. Do people ever get trampled, like at a Who concert?!


Here's a ho-hum photo of Storybook Land's Cinderella Castle - but doesn't it look great surrounded by all of that lush green foliage?


Look at all of that colorful clothing! Reds, yellows and oranges dominate. I remember thinking that nobody would ever be nostalgic for the 70's, and now it all seems so fun and funky. That's what 40+ years will do, I suppose. Meanwhile, if a Matterhorn bobsled is visible in a photo of the mountain, I consider it a good omen. Note to self... buy a lottery ticket. I can't lose!


20 comments:

Chuck said...

Not sure how I feel about all of that verdure behind Cinderella's Castle. It blocks the view of those telephone poles.

Scott Lane said...

The telephone poles weren't there, it was their day off.

Major? Those long shadows indicate that it was late afternoon, not early morning.

K. Martinez said...

Yeah, that lush green foliage is blocking the view of my beloved telephone poles! Bulldoze it!

The third image is classic. Always love that view and approach to the Matterhorn from the Plaza. Thanks, Major.

Nanook said...

Major-

Darn - all the good telephone pole jokes have already been taken-! Let's see... a priest, a rabbi and a telephone pole walk into a bar.... Nope - I've got nothing.

Thanks, Major.

Chuck said...

Nanook, maybe "a priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a telephone pole"...?

Melissa said...

One or two times I thought I would be trampled at the gates of the Magic Kingdom, but it never actually happened. I did get kicked in the head by a kid being carried on someone's shoulder.

The little Asian boy in the blue coat and red shoes in the first picture gets an 11 out of 10 on the 70's Child Adorability Scale (70CAS). Weird to think he's a middle-aged man now, probably taking his own kids to Disneyland as we speak.

Foliage? Verdure? I'm gonna have to go get my dictionotomy.

Unknown said...

And would ya look at all of that ivy! ::Makes careful notes in ivy-castle chronology log::

Irene said...

TokoyoMagic - if you read these comments today, please go back to yesterday's comments about Knotts. I've added some information and a link you will probably find interesting.

Major Pepperidge said...

Chuck, that’s the thing about life… it’s always something.

Scott Lane, joke’s on you… remember that Superman reversed the rotation of the earth. I’ll bet you feel silly now.

K. Martinez, I’m not sure I would love view #3 as much if it wasn’t for all of those groovy 70’s people.

Nanook, you need to buy “Bennett Cerf’s Big Book of Telephone Pole Jokes”. Now in e-book form!

Chuck, were they all drunk?

Melissa, “Trampled at the Gates of the Magic Kingdom” is one of Led Zeppelin’s worst albums.

Patrick Devlin, I can’t wait to read your 10,000 page monograph!

Irene, I went back and read your comment, I’m glad you had so much fun with the Ghost Town stuff!

Chuck said...

When I was in high school, I remember one afternoon early in the track season when those of us on the distance team were "running the ditch," which consisted of a long run along an elevated dirt access road that paralleled an irrigation ditch through town, past the high school tennis courts, and then on south into the Oklahoma countryside.

Three of us were running in a group, all of us wearing shades, and feeling pretty good about ourselves as only cocky young high school students can. As we ran past the tennis courts, we noticed that the girls' team was warming up for practice, and the most attractive girl on the team (and this was in a school filled with attractive girls) was on the court closest to the ditch.

As will happen with high school boys around pretty young women, three heads and six eyes were turned upon the fair maiden as she reached back to serve the ball. She caught movement in the corner of her eye as we ran past, looked up, and flashed us a high-wattage smile that must have browned out the power through half the county. We all goofily grinned back, practically floating in the realization that this goddess of the netted court had acknowledged our existence. I could have run ten miles on the power of that one smile alone.

It was at this point that one of my buddies ran head-on into a telephone pole.

Nanook said...

@ Chuck-

You get 10 bonus points for that 'call back'-!

Scott Lane said...

Major: But this was 1974, Supe wouldn't turn back the world for another 4 years. So there! :-P

And, for the record (vinyl!), I LOVED “Trampled at the Gates of the Magic Kingdom”. Particularly the songs 'Stairway to Skyway', 'Matterhorn Mountain Hop' and 'The Small World Song Remains the Same'.


Alonzo P Hawk said...

Thanks for the post. These are great retro gems. An array of bell bottoms and pleather jackets is always worth the wait.

Melissa said...

“Bennett Cerf’s Big Book of Telephone Pole Jokes”. Now in e-book form!

My Grandma used to have "Bennett Cerf's Bumper Crop" on the book shelvess in one of her spare bedrooms. Whenever we got snowed in at her house I'd stay up late with it and have a good google. That's probably why my sense of humor is stalled in the middle of the last century.

Chuck said...

Melissa, what great memories! We had a couple of Bennett Cerf books, but I don't remember any of them having an Internet search capability.

TokyoMagic! said...

I was watching Bennett Cerf on TV just last night. No, really.

Irene, I saw both of your comments. Thanks for that info. I won't kill the messenger, but I am in complete shock and disgust. That is really it for me. I will not be renewing my Knott's pass now. This is yet another piece of Knott's history that management will be just tossing aside. And they rebuilt many of those peek-ins just a few years ago and seemed to take care in recreating what had been there originally. It doesn't make sense. Why celebrate the 75th anniversary of Ghost Town if you are just going to go ruin it after the celebration. Very sad!

Major Pepperidge said...

Chuck, that’s a great story. I’m sure I’ve run into something (if not a telephone pole) looking at a pretty girl. Even now I can occasionally be very distracted!

Nanook, 10 points to Hufflepuff?

Scott Lane, don’t confuse me with the facts! Ha ha, now I want to hear Robert Plant singing Disney songs.

Alonzo, I swear I used to think “flares” looked so dumb, and now… they’re kind of cool. For other people, not me.

Melissa, I had at least one book by Bennett Cerf, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what it was. A good google?!

Chuck, not everyone can be as cool as Melissa. Why even try?

Nanook said...

Major-

'Hufflepuff'-? Hmmmm... Probably not. Just a comedians term: "A callback, in terms of comedy, is a joke which refers to one previously told in the set".

Melissa said...

My hands and eyes don't coordinate with themselves, let alone each other.

Melissa said...

My hands and eyes don't coordinate with themselves, let alone each other.