I guess I can't put it off any longer… today I am posting the last 3 images from a set of stereo slides from the early 1970's. They were fun while they lasted!
Here's a busy scene taken on the western edge of the hub, watched over by papa Matterhorn. Speaking of papas, that guy in the green shirt and his wife (I'm assuming that's her in the yellow top) has four boys, which exhausts me just thinking about it. There might be a baby in that stroller too. Yikes. Notice the sign for the GAF Picture Trail… General Aniline & Film took over from Kodak, and things haven't been the same since. You also get the blue Peoplemover train, and the funky fountains just beneath it.
Dad loves his groovy shirt, and he loves horse-drawn trolleys too. The horse is guided by a small transistor planted inside his medulla. This also provides soothing AM radio to pass the time. He particularly enjoys the Carpenters.
Here's another nice scene, this time way down near the old Bank of America (to our right), with the Opera House and Hills Bros Coffee Garden visible in the background. Dad is carrying a popcorn box with a familiar design. Could that couple already be leaving? It's still broad daylight!
1st Image - I always loved this view with the Alpine Gardens, Matterhorn Mountain and Tomorrowland entrance all in view. From a certain angle you could see palm trees in Switzerland. Only in Disneyland!
ReplyDelete2nd Image - With mortar and pestle gone, it looks like Upjohn moved out and Elgin moved in. I remember Elgin Clocks more than the Upjohn Pharmacy. Honestly, I don't remember the pharmacy at all.
3rd Image - I miss the old coffee shop location on Town Square. Why, oh why did they not open the Starbucks here instead of the Market House.
Nice set of Main street images today. Thanks!
Cool photos, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI think the stroller is just a jacket holder (if not they would be arrested for smothering a baby). Dad saves 50 cents on the locker rental too.
See the youngest boy has a death grip on the handle. This is in case he get too tired to walk he has dibs on the rolling ride. My son used to do the same, walking along fine and then plop in the seat and sleep for two hours.
Western edge of the hub? Tomorrowland is on the Eastern side of the hub.
ReplyDeleteI marveled at Mama Yellowvest’s ability to buy ugly pants in four patterns and sizes, until I realized they’re probably all hand-me-down ugly pants from Big Brother Tex. The youngest is going to be wearing Tex’s groovy leavings well into the Miami Vice era.
ReplyDeleteBy the looks on the Popcorn Family's face, I can well believe that they're about to leave the park early, but the cockeyed optimist in me refuses to do so. They're just going for a ride on the choo-choo! Or looking for a trash can for the empty popcorn container! Yeah, that's it! Oh, who am I trying to kid? There'll be tears before bedtime, as Grandma used to say.
It's interesting to see the original "large" elms on Main Street. While they did tend to ruin the scale of the buildings, they certainly added a touch of realism to Main Street that just doesn't exist with their smaller replacements.
ReplyDeleteThe Bellbottoms! The Flares! Man, it was just all just too groovy for one decade to contain it.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I had a pair of each of those hideous pants in the Yellowvest family's hand-me-downs lineup. What were we thinking?
Melissa isn't kidding about the four pairs of 'ugly' pants. (At least all the boys are sporting "cool" hats). And let's not forget the groovy bell bottoms on the girl - with her boyfriend-? - standing off to the left of our family on the move.
ReplyDeleteMajor- I think it's time for a new compass.
@Tom-
ReplyDeleteYou know, if enough folks start dressing a certain way.... It's not until later when the benefit of hindsight kicks-in, and a collective groan of disgust and closet cleaning takes place, that we fully realize the error of our ways, starting a witch hunt for all those clothing "designers". It IS all about selling stuff, after all - even back then.
K. Martinez, I don't believe I ever set foot in the Upjohn store, but I sure loved that "Tiffany" stained glass mortar and pestle. Come to think of it, I probably never went in the Elgin Clocks store either (kids aren't interested in clocks and watches)!
ReplyDeleteAlonzo, I think you might be right about the stroller. Once in a while I'll see a small child blissfully asleep and feel a pang of jealousy!
Anon, oh yeah, West is the other way. I must be dyslexic, it's amazing how much I do that.
Melissa, remember, this is the 70's when ugly pants (etc) ruled. I still remember my first sports coat and "slacks", both of them a patriotic red white and blue plaid. WHEW! Maybe that family with the popcorn lives nearby, and they went to the park all the time.
steve2wdw, I agree with you… large trees are so beautiful, but don't necessarily work so well when you want visitors to see your detailed theme park.
Tom, I think my favorite detail regarding the family in the first photo is all of the souvenir hats on the boys, including the Donald Duck "squeaky bill" hat… I have mine from some childhood visit.
Nanook, I like seeing the bell-bottoms nowadays, mostly because they are so much "of the era". And I think it's time for a new brain, in my case.
That's very true, and there's also the fact that not everybody has the luxury of wearing what they actually find pleasing to their own tastes. If you have to rely on what's in the mainstram shopping outlets, you have to choose from what's on the racks whether you find it ugly or not. I'm incredibly grateful that my mother was such a good seamstress, because when there was absolutely nothing I could stand, or nothing that didn't make my awkwardly-growing body look even more monstrous, in the stores we could agfford, she could either make something or make something over. And we wore tons of hand-me-downs, but they always fit well.
ReplyDeleteI sold kids' clothes for a few months in a department store, and I swear, I met a half-dozen mothers on the berge of a nervous breakdown every day trying to get what they and their kids wanted, and the industry just wasn't supplying. The only two pieces of advice that could have actually helped them, I wasn't allowed to give. So I give them here, in case any prospective parents happen across them. Either,
1. Learn at least basic sewing if you plan on having children, or
2. Stop caring
Of course, #2 only works until the kids are old enough to care themselves, and too old to be put off. Of course, by then they're probably old enough to learn to do simple alterations themselves.
There have always been fashions I consider ugly and refuse to wear.
(Meant to add to my soapbox rant about kids' clothes - Yes, your kids ARE GROWING. That means they're going to be BETWEEN SIZES most of the time.)
ReplyDeleteSure looks like the time I worked at Hill's Bros. I can just envision the scene looking out from the patio to the crowds in the Square. As for Upjohn, after hours I'd go over now and then to get free samples of their vitamins to take home!
ReplyDeletepretty groovy...fun in the sun at Disneyland! :-)
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy your pics of vintage DL to see what once was. But the "groovy" clothes are a great bonus.
ReplyDelete