Sunday, June 17, 2018

Monstro and Storybook Land, August 1967

Fun Mom gets a lot of love here on GDB, but we have to salute Fun Dad once in a while. After all, he took most of the photos (well over 100!) from various trips to the park in the 60's and 70's. And a bunch of them are pretty good - he had a good eye, as they say. FD is wearing a jacket and tie, which I appreciate -  the only time I ever did that was for Grad Nite. He is posing in his best GQ attitude - though it might be cooler if he was shading his eyes (as if looking for a ship in the distance). 

I am wondering if that crazy bag he is holding is from one of the shops at Disneyland - perhaps not.


We might as well enjoy this photo of the Casey Jr. Circus Special, with its calliope, as well as cages of monkeys and other wild animals.


12 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
My goodness - Fun Dad [or, as his friends call him - "FD"], seems to have fallen into the middle of a fashion faux pas-! Why, even that towhead child standing off to the right is looking incredulous. YES - white sox-! For shame-!

I see the floral "Story Book Land" 'signage' is still going through its "three separate words" period.

Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

I like the print that lady in the first pic is wearing. I want a shirt with that pattern! The more I stare at her, it kind of looks like she's standing in the canal, or at least on the other side of those rocks. I know it's just an illusion.

Melissa said...

Something about that rockwork seems to inspire men to do their best Captain Morgan impression.

Chuck said...

Monstro is eyeballing us. He wants our collective souls.

I have a tie with a similar pattern to that woman's dress in the first pic (although much smaller). And I'm positive someone I know (mother, grandmother, great aunt, scullery maid, former commanding officer - somebody) had a bag in that paisley pattern.

If you really look at them, it becomes obvious that the open-air cars on Casey, Jr., were fashioned from the leftover benches that came off the Dentzel merry-go-round that became King Arthur's Carrousel. Note the tiller of the SBL patrol craft in the lower left-hand corner.

I know they do MX (maintenance) at night, but it never hit me before that that includes mowing. That's just something that I don't associate with the hours of darkness, but with no neighbors to compain, why not? Anybody have any idea what hind of mower they use for some place like the slopes of Storybook (a.k.a. Story Book) Land?

Melissa said...

My guess is singing goats.

K. Martinez said...

Fun Dad looks great in his color coordinated suit and paisley bag.

I always liked the sloped flowerbeds that spell out "STORY BOOK LAND" and "CASEY JR RR". Thanks Major.

JC Shannon said...

At my church Confirmation in 1965, I wore a paisley tie not unlike FD's bag. Man was I stylin' or what? Even the boy in the pic is impressed by "The Bag". I would give half my Kingdom to look inside and see what kinda stuff he was toting. Happy Fathers Day to all, and thanks to Major for the scans.

Patrick Devlin said...

Well, Nanook I'm glad someone else, at least, is keeping track of the typography of STORYBOOK LAND and such: It's important!

And major, that's no calliope, that's the engine! Great bit of design work there, to keep Casey Jr.'s engine nice and petite. It took me forever to notice that because it's good design!

Anonymous said...

Disney raises the old FTD slogan "Say it with Flowers" to new heights.

One of my favorite "things I will never get to do" would be to tour Disneyland after hours and watch the maintenance, I'm sure it's a fascinating coordinated whirlwind of activities, featuring singing goats and a veritable army of chewing gum scrapers, no doubt.

I'm guessing FD made a "comfort over fashion" choice and wore athletic socks instead of thin wool for his long day on his feet in DL.

Major, you said over 100 pictures with Fun Family, that's cool, and also kind of sad that all these went up for sale and didn't somehow remain precious memories for the boys in the pics, who are probably about the same age as your readers. Wondering what series of events led to the collection coming available, hoping the best for these men, for surely they are grown to that age, and grateful for their parent's foresight to record their family time in Disneyland.

JG

Anonymous said...

In answer to JG,in my particular situation I had to hastily liquidate much of my parents possessions from afar when they entered assisted living and the house was sold. And with went much of a collection of photos which I greatly regret. But that was the cost of them waiting too long to make the move voluntarily. :( KS

Melissa said...

My mother and I are in the process of scanning the boxes of old photos from my grandmother and aunt's houses; if we ever get finished it won't be too much of a tragedy if the hard copies get lost when my sister and I go. (I wish I had the money to just get them all professionally scanned at one go, but even the cheapest service in my area is prohibitively expensive.)

Anonymous said...

@KS & Melissa, those transitions are never easy, and some are as hard as they can possibly be. All my best, I've done all those things too.

I'm not sure where most of our family Disney pics went either. I've found a few, but there had to have been many, many more, and these probably were trashed when Mom and Dad moved to town. I've searched most of the boxes I still have, nothing.

JG