Snacktime with Steve Stuart

You've seen Steve Stuart at Santa's Village, Disneyland, Marineland, and other places, but today we're visiting a new spot - Pacific Ocean Park! Now I admit that I am saving the better P.O.P. images for later, but for now let's check out snacktime:

It’s July, 1962 (or June – and it’s my 11^th birthday-??) and another group of friends and I are enjoying cupcakes-? and Coca-Cola at the famous (or infamous) Pacific Ocean Park (POP).  That’s my mom in the upper center, looking at me the way only a mother can.  Next to me is Don, and to his left, my aunt.  Down front, with their backs to the camera are Mark, Bill, Jeff and Dick.  It would appear we’re “dining” at the Fisherman’s Cove, “… a recreation of a quaint New England fishing village…  “… The area was a picturesque collection of quick-service food and beverage restaurants, all set to a Cape Cod theme”.  

(The preceding brief quotes were taken from Pacific Ocean Park: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles’ Space-Age Nautical Pleasure Pier.  I will happily use any opportunity to ‘plug’ that book, as it’s easily the best reference book about POP written to date-!  If you have any interest in POP, or seaside amusement parks in general, don’t pass-up the chance to purchase a copy for yourself.  You’ll be thanking me long into the future).

Can’t you just ‘sense all that Cape Cod goodness’ as you scan that scene-?  Those cupcakes have more of a “Cape Cod feel” than the background we can see pictured here. 

Oh, wait – it must be the yellow fire hydrant and that lonely tree in the planter box seen in this image that are providing all that New England “theming”.  And are my mom and I wearing ‘similarly striped shirts’ - but with different colors-?  How creepy – especially when one’s friends are rather near.

In the third view we can now see the faces of Dick, Jeff, Bill and Mark wolfing-down those ‘cupcakes’.  And looking-around, based on the Thermos and a picnic basket, it seems the other diners brought some, or all of their own food and drink to Fisherman’s Cove.

But perhaps more amusing is the printed “message” emblazoned at both ends of each table:  “We hope the previous users of this table left it clean for you”.  In other words – “We’re too cheap to hire enough staff to clean-up after ‘previous users’-!“  Oh well.  It’s doubtful those ‘self-service’ messages alone were a part of the downfall of POP, but at some point they certainly didn’t help keep it alive.

Stay tuned for more P.O.P. photos (and other stuff) from Steve!