Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Knott's Mine Train, August 1965

Here are two images of folks aboard the Calico Mine Train at Knott's Berry Farm. No interiors of the ride, unfortunately.

This towheaded little girl clutches her train ticket while waiting for the train to get under way. I love the simple, wooden mine cars that guests sit in.


Here's big sis with dad. He's armed with a movie camera, and she has her own camera. She's not afraid to use it either! I like the hair bow. Notice that both girls are wearing unusual, half-yellow, half-white dresses (each with a red-orange flower) that look very "mod"! I suspect that mom made them on her Singer sewing machine at home, which is pretty cool.




11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Neat pictures! Major, your take on the Singer outfits is probably correct, and the girls look cool. Remember the patterns that Mom used? They were really thin, crinkly paper with instructions and hieroglyphics for alignment, folds, etc. After everything was cut out, she saved them and shared them at sewing club with the neighbors!

Both girls have their tickets in hand - and they are already on the ride. How did the ticket process work?

Bill in Denver

Anonymous said...

My Mother traced out her patterns on old newspapers, so she could use them over and over. She used her mother's old singer that you powered with your feet. It was so strong that it could sew through leather and heavy denim.

CoxPilot

TokyoMagic! said...

Nice pre-Log Ride views. We can even see a corner of the old shooting gallery in that first pic (now a Panda Express, BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!) Oh, and my family still has my great-great-grandmother's Singer sewing machine.....the pedal-type like CoxPilot mentioned.

Melissa said...

That takes me back. Mom made most of my sister's and my clothes, and a lot of them were matching/coordinating dresses. I had the same clothes for years because as soon as I grew out of my own I'd grow into her matching version. I remember some of our vacation pictures looking like stills from The Shining.

Major Pepperidge said...

Bill, those dresses have a very simple outline that definitely suggests they might have been made by a seamstress who is learning! I think that the tickets, once purchased, were then punched with a special ticket punch (maybe a star shape?), leaving you with a souvenir to take home.

CoxPilot, my mom's Singer machine looks almost like it is from the 1920s, though she got it in the 50's. It used to fascinate me, watching the little needle go up and down as it fed the cloth through.

TokyoMagic!, I don't understand why you don't like quality food at reasonable prices! ;-)

Melissa, sounds like your mom was pretty awesome, though I'm sure you wanted different clothes when you were a little girl.

Chuck said...

What I'm getting out of this is that the descendants of people who made clothes at home are also highly likely to be Disneyland, Knott's, and 1964 World's Fair fanatics. Hmmm...

Hey, honey...break out that box of old McCall's patterns!

Anonymous said...

Think of all the still photographs and movie film of Disneyland and Knott’s that is stored in closets , attics and garages that is yet to be discovered. It baffles science.

K. Martinez said...

My sisters were heavy into making their own clothes from those patterns. As for me, I was too busy working on my plastic model kits.

I like the wooden mine car.

Anonymous said...

Major, your memory of the tickets squares with mine.

The ticket was sort of oblong, not square, nor as long/thin as a Disney ticket. I remember it as having period lettering and theme markings, different colors for adult and child, etc. I seem to recall green and amber papers. I know I had a bunch of these once upon a when.

The "conductor" punched your ticket with a hole punch. Seems like it was a star pattern, but could have been just a circle. This was similar to the train ride and the "elevator" train at Calico.

These photos really bring back good memories. And yes, for the record, my mom and mom-in-law both sewed clothes from McCall patterns, and so does my wife, even now, occasionally. Our daughter is a competent seamstress as well. She often makes "period style" item that she can't find in thrift shops etc... for her "steampunk" moments.

JG

Anonymous said...

There is a hole punched in the girl's ticket--1st picture. And that's how I remember it.

Anonymous said...

Somewhere here at home (and I'm sure the wife could tell me exactly where) we have a scrapbook of sorts that she made up for me after our first trip together to Knott's and Disneyland. And in that book is at least one of those old tickets. Gosh what good memories. That would have been around 1971 or 72 I think