Orphaned Slides, and a Birthday
Let's start today by wishing GDB friend KS a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! As usual, Sue B. went above and beyond and sent this vintage scan from a vintage birthday party; two boys proudly show off their brand-new wiffle bats! Little sis is almost as happy as they are. Notice the velvet painting, a large and particularly stunning example of the art form. Is it a vaquero? Or perhaps a pirate?
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Both of today's scans are the last examples from larger lots of scans; they sat in a folder, a dark, scary folder full of spiders and ghosts. But now they've found a home! I love a happy ending.
First up is this picture of the Columbia, from "sometime in the 1960s". The ship is moored over at Tom Sawyer Island rather than Fowler's Harbor, and that is likely due to some sort of massive construction going on over on the shores of Frontierland/New Orleans Square (possibly in 1960 or 1962). If you look closely, you can see that some maintenance is being done, stuff is covered in gray tarps (probably made from walrus hides), and that rope ladder is just begging to be climbed by piratical guests.
Next is this view of the Motorized Firetruck, from August, 1960. A few guests have sought shade on this hot August day, and there is not exactly a long line to people waiting to ride the Firetruck, for some reason. They were probably standing somewhere waiting for "Galaxy's Edge".
20 comments:
Gee, does every kid in that pic have their own birthday cake, or what? Dark wood paneling, dark wood furniture, and a macrame plant holder. It must be the seventies!
It's always interesting to see the Columbia "off it's rails."
Thanks, Major and Sue! And a very happy birthday to KS!
Major-
I first thought those boys had been gifted a pair of Light Sabers - I can see on closer inspection it was the great American pastime, instead. (The matching shirts are a nice plus-!) Judging from that towering stack of paper plates, this party is going to attract quite a crowd.
Thanks Sue, for another wonderful celebration, frozen in time.
Happy Birthday, KS-!
Happy birthday, Ken! We appreciate your tales of yore as a Disneyland employee. (Were they called cast members back then?)
Welcome to the '70s! (Tokyo! beat me to it, but here it is anyway!) Ya gots yer hanging macrame plant holder (but no plant), yer dark walnut paneling, 19" color TV, and the velvet painting. I keep going back-and-forth whether it's a pirate or a vaquero; flip a coin. Although, it seems more likely they would have a painting of a south-of-the-border cowboy than a pirate.
The two boys must be twins: They're dressed the same, they both got the same birthday present, they both have a birthday cake. Yet, the boy on the left looks a little younger? Maybe it's because he's further away from the camera. They look a little hyper to me. Right after this photo was taken, both boys smashed their cakes with their bats.
Sue, thanks once again for a fun foto that we can analyze.
"made from walrus hides". Well, I guess that's better than blue whale skins. The Columbia looks kinda stretched out lengthwise here; probably just an optical illusion. ORRR, something screwy is happening with dimensional space! I can't tell what is under all that scaffolding. It seems pretty tall!
Interesting how the Firetruck is red & black, and the driver is also red & black. Traditional colors, I guess. The Truck and Driver together make a striking visual image.
"scary folder full of spiders and ghosts." Meh, I can handle spiders and ghosts. BUT, if that folder had been crawling with clowns and mimes... Yikes! Thanks, Major.
Oh, my! That first photo is so ‘70s. Although none of this was my mother’s decorating style, I had many friends’ mothers who decorated this way. It makes me smile, remembering my own childhood.
JB, that looks like Tom & Huck’s Treehouse under all of that scaffolding. That rascal Tom has tricked a bunch of Disneyland employees into painting it for him. The tarps are protecting the sensitive electronics from Columbia’s Terrier missile battery.
Oddly, I’m not crazy about clowns, but I can handle mimes. Individually, at least. Not sure what I’d do if I discovered I’d wandered into an active mimefield.
Oh - forgot the most important thing - happy birthday, Ken!
Happy Birthday fellow Disneylander KS. The title "Disneylander" was fading fast in my day: making way for the more commonly used (today anyway) "Cast Member". I prefer Disneylander. As I've said before "Cast Member" was generally only used with guest interaction and the normal world "employee" was the norm. If anything, back in my day (1000 years ago): "Cast Member" confused guests as they thought of it as someone who was in a show, and not realizing that the show was Disneyland itself. It was too hard to explain. Cast Member makes me cringe now. There: I've said it. "Resort" also makes me cringe unless referring to somewhere on an exotic beach where you are served drinks with little umbrellas in them. That is that rant: now for Velvet Paintings, Macrame, and plastic bats to bash each other with. Fun times. These guys could be cousins: identical cousins. They walk alike they talk alike. You could lose your mind. That's an interesting shot of the Columbia: out there on it's own: what exactly is it moored to? I like the little ladder to get to the deck. I suppose they used that blue metal skiff we've seen to get over there to board her. For the guys working on the Columbia: rigging it....soooo....where's the bathroom? When ya gotta go, ya gotta go. I can make some assumptions: something akin to ODV guys circa 1980 accepting dares. I'll leave it there. The best thing about the firetruck photo is the red sidewalks behind and a City Hall without a queue to get into it. I still find that new way of doing business more than very strange, but I suppose it's better than filling City Hall with plush. I've been busy for a few weeks: if you dare, I'll be responding to some previous posts: starting with unbuttoned vests (the horror of it all...) Thanks Major and a very happy birthday to Ken.
From one Ken to another Ken, Happy Birthday!
The photo I want to see is of those two boys bashing and smashing the cakes with their bats. Then mom would take them to the doctor to get a prescription for Ritalin.
Back in the early 1980's I remember going to Tijuana and seeing tons of velvet paintings of Michael Jackson. Very bizarre.
Happy Birthday Ken, many happy returns of the day! I know we haven’t established what that means, but I mean it in the best possible congratulatory way. Hope you have some wiffle ball or something fun!
Yes, those boys are embedded in every ‘70’s decorating theme imaginable. I don’t miss that era at all. Great pic though.
There was a day when I would have swam across that River and climbed the rope ladder, walruses or no walruses. Is the ship really off the rails? Did it have wheels or only free-floating?
At least I can see that the fire truck has wheels and no tracks. I would always take the fire truck since I drive like I’m going to a fire. Might as well be authentic.
Thanks Major!
JG
@ JG-
"...many happy returns of the day! I know we haven’t established what that means..." According to Merriam-Webster, it simply means: "... used for wishing someone a happy birthday and to express the hope that he or she will live to celebrate many more birthdays in the future." I suppose this definition makes the most sense. Idioms are funny that way.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEN!!
Growing up one of my neighbors had twin girls ….they looked alike but one was blonde and one was brunette … like characters on I DREAM OF JEANNIE or BEWITCHED!! Anyway .. on their birthdays they always got their own cakes! Sometimes different flavors or frostings and differ decorations made to each liking.
Red has been associated with fire fighting vehicles since the 1800’s but it wasn’t very common until the 1920’s. Prior to that bright white was used on fire engines and horse drawn equipment . Similar to how yellow was more common on American Stagecoaches … but it’s the red coaches of Wells Fargo Express and Overland Lines that stood out and people remembered.
Bu, ”For the guys working on the Columbia: rigging it....soooo....where's the bathroom? That’s what the poop deck was for.
TokyoMagic!, are you telling me that you didn’t get your own cake when you went to birthday parties as a child? Weird! We also each got a new car, even though we were only six years old!
Nanook, I suppose a wiffle (whiffle?) bat is an appropriate gift for boys that age, but I remember when we got an aluminum bat (when the whole concept was new) and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Those must be Cornell paper plates, the very best!
JB, the decor of the 70s is good for laughs, but I look back on it fondly. It was warm and there was just something about it, so different from the mid-century look that preceded it (though that is great too). I’m not so sure about the boys being twins, for the same reasons you mentioned; I’ve been making blog posts recently with other identically-dressed boys or girls, but the pair is clearly not twins, or at least identical twins. Blue whales? Those things are like stray cats around here! Recently there were said to be around 100 blues frolicking around the Channel Islands, which is pretty cool, I’d sure love to see one up close. I agree, clowns and mimes are too much!
Chuck, yes, when I lived in Huntington Beach, that 70s wood paneled, shag carpeted style was the thing. What about bumper pool tables, huh? HUH? Sorry, I get excited. I hate to admit it, but I didn’t even notice the scaffolding on the tree to the left. I really shouldn’t blog when I’m drunk. Anybody who is crazy about clowns is just that - crazy.
Chuck, I hope KS tunes in!
Bu, I’m surprised that “Disneylander” survived at all into the 80s - it seems like such a 50s (or early 60s) term. They are always rewriting history, with the myth that they always used the term “cast member”. Or that Disney parks are “all about story”, which is a crock of… stuff. Even Marc Davis said that rides like the Haunted Mansion are not about story. And he should know. But that doesn’t make for good copy. “Resort” seems so “Vegas”, even though I know what they are going for. They want it to be a vacation destination, even though Disneyland is mostly populated by zillions of locals. I wonder if the place was crowded during this terrible heat wave? The thought of being there in 100 degree heat is not inspiring. Velvet paintings: my mom and dad once got one as a gag gift, it had the Devil, with pills, a syringe, and a martini glass hovering around him. It was so awesome. And they gave it away! I was so mad. If they’d let me have it I would have happily taken it. With the Columbia, whenever it was being worked on, it was moored to some land, whether it was the “mainland” or TSI, and there are bathrooms there. No need to pee off the rail!
K. Martinez, ha ha, I’m guessing you are a fan of the show “Jackass”! Bashing a cake with bats sounds like something they would do. I remember “sweaty Elvis” velvet paintings, so awesome.
JG, “many returns of the day” means that when you take an item back to Target, they have to accept it, no matter what. It’s one of the great perks of being an American, and I’m glad it is in our Constitution. There are actual wheels on the bottom of the Columbia, I have one found photo in which you can see at least some of them, if I can find it maybe I’ll send it to you!
Nanook, I like my definition better! Merrieam-Webster can go suck eggs.
Mike Cozart, I have twin cousins, and I honestly could not tell them apart until I’d spent several days around them. Their own family thought that they didn’t look alike “at all”, which is nuts. I”m sure that being a twin has its challenges, and maybe they’d appreciate their own cakes, instead of always being treated like a single unit. When I moved to the east coast I was so surprised to see fire trucks painted bright yellow. Not that unusual now, but it was strange at first.
Chuck, hey, I’M supposed to make the poop jokes around here!
Happy Birthday Ken! Bu, I agree with you since we both worked during the 1980's, Disneylander was fading from the nomenclature and Cast Member was becoming the norm. Probably preferred Cast Member while working there... and Disneylander now that I'm not. I have mentioned before that the spur rail, or whatever allowed the Columbia to moor across from the Frontier Landing, was not present when I started working the attraction nor was it ever even talked about. So, when I see these photos I am amazed.
The gray "walrus hides" eventually became brown to match the decking (another example of Good Show). They were used to cover up the hatchway leading below decks, "where you may see how sailors of the 1790's lived and worked while on the open sea" (Fulton "Ol' Salty" Burley).
Always your pal,
Amazon Belle
PS - Major I explain my access problems in yesterday's post (if you really must know).
A little late to the party, but my wife made me "do stuff."
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that's a velvet Jerry Garcia. All the cool houses had them in the 70's! Also, I'm a little nervous about those bats being around that cake... Visions of violent squishings dance in my head...
If the two spider ghost ridden pics, I prefer the Columbia (which I finally rode a few months ago!).
Although the fire truck is cool too. However, it almost ran me over on this last trip, and I hold a grudge... (Not really, but it did sneak up behind me!)
Bravo Major! (And Sue Too!)
And Happy Birthday, Ken!!!
Major, yes, I was a big fan of "Jackass". Johnny Knoxville and his buds were hilarious. All my friends hated that show, but I loved it.
It's Mario and Lino's 4th birthday party in June 1978. I just looked on the back of the photo. But those curtains scream 'late 1960s.' Old curtains, I guess.
Matt, I don't think you have to worry about 'splaining' anything. We're just glad you're back!
I'm not sure if KS will comment today, as he IS doing something special now. I'm sure he will comment as soon as he is able, and will 'splain.
Thanks, Major.
Chuck, you need to deploy a mime-sniffing dog.
JB, I used to have one, but I had to let him go. He was always acting out.
Better late than never. I thought I had sent a thank you from my island in Fiji, but across the date line and time zones, it was and is appreciated. Just catching up now after 3+ weeks overseas and dealing with Covid as well. Now THAT was a trip! KS
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