Monday, December 23, 2013

More Santa's Village, November 1959

We might as well take a look at these final four photos from Santa's Village! We're almost down to the "now or never" stage.

This first one is pretty cute; the little girl seems very pleased to be posing with Santa. Giant Mushroom Alert!


Geese are mean. And smelly. And probably Commies, too. But I will allow this photo in honor of the Christmas spirit.


Well, there it is… the North Pole itself! Somehow I thought it might be bigger, and maybe striped like a candy cane. Instead, it is perpetually cold, no matter how warm the surrounding climate is. A thick layer of frost has accumulated, which is why it looks weird!


And finally, the Candy Kitchen, which looks very "Hansel and Gretel" in this photo… the park's forest surroundings really added a lot to the charm and atmosphere. 


That does it for the Santa's Village pix for this year! I'm not sure I will be blogging in another 12 months (not enough photos), but we'll see...

11 comments:

Melissa said...

1.
Between the way the trim on Santa’s chair is sticking out on either side of his head like devil horns, and the sheer evil of that puppet imp in the window box, I fear for the body and soul of that poor child. I don’t know if the big man in the blood-red suit is gently embracing the infant so tender and mild, or trying to determine her lean meat to fat ratio, and what kind of marinade to use. Good thing there’s no lack of mushrooms to sautée.

2.
Speaking as the grand- and great-granddaughter of women who raised geese, I will go a step further and declare geese to be Full-Fledged Evil Bastards. If DNA tests don’t reveal Joe Stalin to be at least one quarter goose, I won’t be at all surprised.

3.
Must resist urge to comment on dreamy look in nice lady’s eyes as she caresses giant, round-tipped shaft and gazes lovingly at where it meets under-tunic area of Aryan-looking elf with raised eyebrows and splayed limbs. Must focus on blurry man with paper on other side of fence. Is probably reading his phone bill and trying to remember why he made a long-distance call to Bluefield, West Virginia, Oh, my God, ridiculously young girl is doing it, too, no, no, back to man with phone bill. He’s trying to decide if he should pay extra to get off the party line, those darn nosy neighbors.

4.
Candy Kitchen in Santa’s Village
Means more to you than eating in mine.
Candy Kitchen in Santa’s Village -
You'd rather eat there any old time.

You don't mean it when we’re havin’
A four-course meal with wine and beer;
Candy Kitchen, in the cabin,
Is where you’d rather be, my dear.

I baked a butter cake from scratch, dear
I thought that you were baking, too.
Now my cakes, they all have fallen,
And I am left alone and blue.

Once you found my fare bewitchin’
Now my table’s soaked with tears.
Santa’s Village Candy Kitchen
Means more to you than mine does, dear.

(Apologies to George Morgan)

I've really enjoyed this trip to Santa's Village. I know a lot of parents of preschoolers who would love something like this if it was still around, but I'm not enough of a businesswoman to know how it could be made economically feasible for modern times.

Melissa said...

Oops, meant to say, "If DNA tests DO reveal Joe Stalin to be at least one quarter goose, I won’t be at all surprised. "

Anonymous said...

BREAKING NEWS: Rogue geese take over Kremlin citing precedent, Russian government flees to exile in Netherlands accompanied by Goose Girl. Russian Air Force flies inverted and quacks up.


I guess the North Pole had refrigeration coils, what a great idea. I do not remember that at all. What a great idea (must resist urge to say "cool").

Thanks Major and Melissa.

JG

JG said...

Major, if you close the blog, for whatever reason, I hope you will occasionally think of your loyal followers, for whom no day is complete without a dose of GDB loony tunes.

Please leave it up as a monument to distraction and sentiment for days and places (and cars) gone by.

Our thanks will echo down the halls of the internet for as long as there is electricity to run the servers.

JG

K. Martinez said...

I have a postcard of the "Jack O'Lantern" character under the multi-colored umbrella that's in image 2. It's one of my favorite postcards of Santa's Village.

Melissa, Some days you're writing puts the biggest smile on my face. Your comments about images 1 & 3 had me in stitches.

Major, It's too bad these places are all gone now. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Major Pepperidge said...

Melissa, well gosh, I was thinking how gentle and grandfatherly Santa looked, cradling the girl like a baby bird! As for geese, I can't tell you how many beautiful lakes I've visited that were ruined by zillions of goose poops. I am all for foie gras! Comment #3, er um… here I was thinking thet my (deleted) comment about hoar frost might be too racy! And I don't know why you are apologizing to George Moran…. he should be honored. I just found more Santa's Village slides, so who knows, maybe there WILL be a Christmas next year.

JG, why are we spending so much tax money on drones when we could just send geese to bother the Russkies? I wonder if they periodically had to defrost the North Pole. I have no plans to take the blog down, it should be around for a while even if there are no new posts!

K. Martinez, I don't think I am familiar with the Jack O'Lantern character - don't recall seeing a photo of it before. I wonder if we would value Santa's Village as much if it was still around?

K. Martinez said...

Major, Here's a pic of Jack O'Lantern I found from matterhorn1959's blog "Stuff From The Park". There was also an Easter Bunny

http://www.matterhorn1959.com/blog2/2011santasvillage13.jpg

Nancy said...

Wonderful pictures for a happy time of the year. I love the woods surrounding the village, just the right touch! Birch trees would really lend a snowy look, but I also love it just as it is. :-)

Major Pepperidge said...

Thanks for the link, Ken! I don't remember seeing it before, it is very "OZ".

Nancy, you can see how it looked in real snow if you check out this old post from hears ago!

Major Pepperidge said...

Arg, "years", not hears.

Dave said...

As far as the geese, yeah they're nasty, years ago, shortly before Lion Country Safari met it's untimely demise I was there once and saw three of the nasty beasts literally blocking the door of the restaurant keeping people from leaving. Actually, judging by the overall decay of the place at that point, they were probably just starving. I've known people to actually use them as "watch dogs" and they're very effective. Me, I just have an enormous dog (Alaskan Malamute) to ward off pillagers.... Oh that's right, Mika's never met a human she doesn't like, bad example.