Tomorrowland Terrace, July 1972
It might just be my faulty memory at play, but it seems to me that my family always wound up eating lunch at the Tomorrowland Terrace when I was a kid. I'm not sure why, exactly - there were plenty of other places to eat in Disneyland; and probably many of them had better food. I'm baffled as to why we never ate at the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship, or the River Belle Terrace, for instance.
Anyway, as you can see, Fun Mom and her family were OK with prosaic offerings like cheeseburgers, hot dogs, fries, and sodas. And the famous "space mist punch", of course - actually prepared in space by NASA astronauts. Your tax dollars at work.
Friends (or relatives) of Fun Mom sat nearby (remember the girl in the red shirt clutching her brother at the end of the Mr. Toad ride?) - I thought they were lucky to find a table, but there are some empty ones in the background. Plenty of room for everyone! I have a vivid memory of fearless sparrows demanding french fries while brandishing tiny switchblades.
17 comments:
Major-
Now, I'm hungry-! I see in the second image, the Mom with 'decades ahead' two-tone hair - in a 1970's flip - is chowing-down with the rest of the family.
Thanks, Major.
I don’t eat much fast food - but when I pass a Burger King the smell always reminds me of the smell of Tomorrowland Terrace in the 70’s and 80’s. And even today I get excited when the Tomorrowland Bandstand begins to rise up!
If I'm not mistaken, those exact same chairs are still used today at the Death Star Diner or whatever it is they are calling the restaurant now (Tatooine Terrace?). And notice how that sweeper just HAD to make sure he got into both of Fund Dad's photos. What a camera hog!
Fun Fact!
The NASA Space Mist program was discontinued when then realized there was no way to produce the drinks in mass. The One Drink/ One Launch method proved cost prohibitive...even for Disney! (Although with current pricing it would probably be fine now.)
Quick note: The employee in white is not a sweeper, he's a janitorial busboy (note the bolo tie) working Coke Terrace. I actually know his name but wonder how happy he'd be if I identified him—so I won't.
Thanks for the cool post, Maj. P!
Twins! I call twins! And one of them is properly aghast at Mrs. Foreground's purple dress.
The Tomorrowland Terrace at the Magic Kingdom is the second Disney restaurant I ever went to, Refreshment Corner being the first.
Omagosh! It is absolutely impossible to not have fun around Fun Mom and family. It's infectious. You can see it on the faces of everyone on the Terrace. Even sweeper guy wants to be around them. Not only is Fun Mom stylin' a pants suit to die for, but Fun Son is totally rockin' those striped pants. I want 'em! As John Lennon once sang, "a splendid time is guarateed for all." Thanks Major for the scans.
That was our usual haunt, too, until the Bear Country eatery opened. And the switchblades didn't look so tiny to me!
dz
Nanook, I miss those sort of dry Tomorrowland hamburgers and lukewarm fries! I can’t tell if that woman has two-toned hair in purpose, or if she is just going gray.
Mike Cozart, maybe the Terrace char-broiled their burgers too? Actually, I don’t go to Burger King, not sure if they char-broil. I used to live a block from a KFC, and sometimes the smell of fried chicken would permeate the air. However, the rare times I went to get some, it never tasted as good as I thought it would. Am I crazy, or did I read that the bandstand no longer raises/lowers?
TokyoMagic!, wow, they’ve been using the same chairs for almost 50 years? That isn’t the same sweeper in both photos; well not exactly. All sweepers were identical clones, prepared in the basement of the Carousel of Progress.
Stuart Powley, the most expensive part was that the Space Mist drink actually had a sprinkling of real moon dust. It tasted great, but man, was that stuff expensive!
Anon, you actually recognize that busboy?! What are the odds. Send him links to the photos if you can! I understand why you can’t give out his identity - at some point he bulked up and changed his name to Hulk Hogan (aka “The Hulkster”).
Melissa, those boys do look alike. More clones? During a stiff breeze, their collars acted like kites and lifted them 20 to 30 feet into the air.
Jonathan, she’s not called “Fun Mom” for nothin’! I think that the busboy is carefully monitoring their conversation and relaying it back to headquarters. One of his sideburns is actually a radio transmitter.
David Zacher, I do like eating at the Hungry Bear restaurant; grab a table at the back, right near the river. You can be away from the crowds, and relax as the Mark Twain goes by. Not sure how it has changed but I think guests are no longer as close to the water - a walkway has been added that will funnel guests to Star Wars Land.
When I heard you mention the Tomorrowland Terrace, I assumed you were writing about the one in WDW. Oh well. Anyway, while we're on the subject, was the famous purple wall present at the WDW Tomorrowland since the start? Or is it a recent addition? Because it seems to have gained quite the cult following.
I've heard that the Hungry Bear is a good location for spotting Disneyland's feral cats.
Major, I love the thought of scientists cloning sweepers (or janitorial busboys) in the basement of the Carousel of Progress.
We usually ate at Hungry Bear Restaurant too. Not only is the restaurant no longer right on the edge of the river (due to that new walkway that you mentioned), but sitting in the very back of the restaurant, looking down the river at the "undeveloped frontier" is no longer going to be a possibility. Since they have shortened the river, it no longer looks like it goes on forever into the wilderness. Now the view is of the train going over a trestle and "amusement park rocks." A couple days ago, there was talk here about the improvement on the look of the park's rockwork over the years. I think the new rockwork is a step backwards and looks more like something I would see in a Six Flags park, not a Disney park. But that's just my opinion!
Prosaic views of terrific memories.
Fun Mom and family are always a fun time.
When I visited with my high school group, I would often eat here, space mist and a ham stack for me.
Never went here with Mom and Dad.
The Terrace Stage still raises and lowers, at least I saw it do so in 2017.
@Tokyo, the rocks in which I was disappointed were the really old ones at the Pack Mule queue, long since demolished. The best in my opinion are the Casey Jones / Monstro complex.
Haven't seen the new river rocks in person, so I will reserve judgment.
JG
TokyoMagic!: I TOTALLY agree with you on the quality of the rock work recently added - and it’s not just the “scuplt” either it’s the staging of props and figure vignettes. Everything is done in a cliche way amature way making everything appear very “amusement park “ .
One reason you may have heard talk of redoing some of the rock work is because the “windswept canyon” guest corridor behind Big Thunder was made too low AND too narrow and is impossible to get utility , maintainence and emergency vehicles through.
I used to love Bear County pre Splash Mt. as it felt like you really were far away in some other place , but as much as I liked the look and feel of Golden Bear Lodge/ Hungry Bear Restaurant , the riverside view always looked very “amusement park” like. They needed it themed more to a river freight dock or something - the orange and cream sunbrellas didn’t help either.
Has anyone ever noticed that The Hungry Bear is painted in the same colors as the Brady Bunch house? Medium olive green board and bat wood siding, orange doors and natural stone! All popular 1972 architectural color schemes.
JG, Oh....I knew what you meant! I remember you mentioning that you hadn't seen the new river or train trestle and rocks. I knew you were talking about the upgrading of that Pack Mule area rockwork from the 1950's, to the improvements seen in Nature's Wonderland, etc.
Mike, I had heard from a cast member about the new rockwork along the Big Thunder Trail being so low, that utility vehicles could no longer go through there. What I want to know is, WHO is it that's designing this stuff now? And WHO is approving the final design and giving the green light for construction? Is everyone involved totally incompetent? It's just frustrating to hear about such things, which seem to happen all the time now (like the new Monorails not fitting around the curves of the track and ripping the bus bar off of the beam. It also seems like such a huge waste of money to have to go back and fix this type of gross error.
P.S. Rant over.....for today, anyway! ;-)
@Tokyo, the kinds of construction coordination and design errors you describe are common in commercial construction. Admittedly, getting the underpass size wrong is pretty gross, but demolition and reconstruction of erroneous design and constructed blunders happens all the time.
In development architecture and construction, everything is driven by "first cost", not life-cycle cost, that is, "how cheap can we do it today, never mind how much it costs tomorrow". Part of this calculation is speed.
The design work is grossly compressed into ridiculous schedules because physical construction takes so long, and getting permits from administrative agencies sometimes takes years. I've worked on multiple big jobs where the permits took almost a decade (yes, 10 years) from project inception, and no one wants to spend money on the design until the entitlement for the project is certain, then everything is done in a rush so construction can start. Decisions made in a hurry cause errors, and the mantra is "Never time to do it right, Always time (and money) to do it over."
This attitude is often justified by the regrettable truth that many less obvious errors (incompatible materials, omitted components in concealed locations, etc.) are not discovered in time, and become incorporated into the final work with no one noticing, until it comes apart years (or sometimes months) later.
The monorail not fitting the track is pretty funny, never heard that one before.
JG
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