Sunday, August 24, 2014

Some Crazy Castle

Sleeping Beauty Castle. It's named after her, but it doesn't belong to her! Some kind of licensing thing - I don't pretend to understand it. She probably gets an annual fee, like the one I get from "Major Pepperidge Sock Emporium".

ANYWAY, I figured I'd share two photos from slightly different years. Like this first one from August of 1960. It's August, and there's no ice cream vendor in the location just to the right? Sacre bleu! Maybe this is from that short-lived period when all you could get at the park was lentils. "Would you like the large cup of boiled lentils, or the extra large?". Dammit, Walt wanted you to be healthy. But the public will have their ice cream. Ingrates. 


Two years later, these two boys appear thrilled to pose for another photo. "Hurry up ma, gee whiz". They wear horizontal stripes so that they can lay down in the tall grass and blend in with the scenery when lions are hunting. Then there's that other kid walking westward with a purpose - he finished one of those big cups of lentils a few hours ago, if you know what I'm saying.


11 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

Yes, horizontal stripes are 'so slimming'. Oh, wait... I think it's black that's 'so slimming'. (I don't think I'm cut out for the life of couture fashion-!)

And the westward-bound kid certainly has what appears to be a very "challenging" hairline. I think I'll just leave it at that.

Thanks, Major, for a Castle-ific Sunday.

Chuck said...

Thanks for clearing up the whole Sleeping Beauty residency thing. I'd always wondered how she could get any sleep in that castle with thousands of people arouring through the front door.

In fact, in that second photo, I can't help but notice that everyone on the drawbridge - I mean EVERYONE - is headed in one direction - towards that gaping maw of a castle gate, only to be devoured in order to meet its insatiable appetite for fresh guest. No wonder they keep trying to increase guest numbers - it's not corporate greed, but a desperate effort to satiate the Demon Castle. We may scoff at the name of Paul Pressler, but his efforts to pack the Park helped to keep its frowning battlements from breaking free of their foundations and ravishing the rest of Orange County. That man deserves a medal.

Nancy said...

I have just realized something.....I like the entrance to the Disneyland castle much more than the Magic Kingdom castle. Being on the "ground level" is much more appealing to me. Dont ask me why coz I have no idea, but I just do. :-)

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Churros made out of lentils? Yuk.

Lentil brittle made and set in the window of the candy shoppe whilst you watch. That sounds like a legume nochtmare if I ever heard one.

Thank goodness this was resolved before we had lentil flavored Dole Whip. Ouch.

K. Martinez said...

Yeah, I guess the Robinson family discovered the hard way that the big treehouse in Adventureland didn't belong to them either.

K. Martinez said...

@Nancy - I think Sleeping Beauty Castle works best close up, while the Cinderella Castle works best from a distance. I do like that you can see Cinderella's Castle from the different "lands" in the Magic Kingdom. It's like the Castle looks over all of the Magic Kingdom, not just Fantasyland. Each castle has their strong points for sure.

Orange Co Native said...

It is too bad the grass areas in front of the castle in the picture are now paved over with concrete. I've always been for more plants and trees over more concrete. Sorry.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I thought it was *vertical* stripes that were supposed to be slimming; I'm so embarrassed. Haha, that kid is wearing one of those plastic wigs that DEVO wore in the "Beautiful World" video.

Chuck, I suppose it is only natural for the castle to devour people in the morning, only to vomit them back out later. I love the idea of the castle being turned evil, but that would probably not be the popular way to go.

Nancy, you mean the entrance to Cinderella Castle at WDW isn't at ground level?!? Like you have to go up stairs or something?

Alonzo, as my dad always says, "Don't knock it until you've tried it". Just imagine the famous lentil milkshakes and "lentil dogs"!

K. Martinez, they should have read the fine print. Let that be a lesson to everyone!

K. Martinez again, I have always thought that the Florida castle was so spectacular, and in a way I wish ours was just a *little* taller, but SBC does work with the scale of our park.

OC Native, I'm not sure if that has to do with saving money (less plant maintenance) or just the realities of dealing with massive crowds on a regular basis. Probably both.

stu29573 said...

Major, Cindy's castle is up hill from Main Street. Slightly. Of course, the whole stinkin' park is actually on the second floor, so I'm not going to judge too harshly...But no steps...

Dean Finder said...

Castle comparisons aside, I'd really like to see those umbrellas over the benches to appear at the Magic Kingdom.

Melissa said...

Well, after all, it's not "Buckingham's Palace," is it?

My sister and I can attest that in Ye Olden Days, every set of two same-sex siblings was legally obligated to appear in public at least twice a week in horizontal-striped t-shirts. Your parents had their democratic choice of blue or red; that was the American Way. As long as you spent your obligatory amount of time disguised as a team of small French mimes (or old-timey British sailors, depending on jurisdiction), you were safe from police interference.

Unfortunately, only families with sets of brothers could apply at their local county courthouse for a Plaid Shirt Exemption (Form EIEIO), which would allow them to substitute an equivalent amount of time impersonating extras from Oklahoma! (or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, depending on jurisdiction).

Mom and Dad attempted to thwart the regulations by giving us matching pixie haircuts and buying sneakers from the boys' department. But, the authorities weren't fooled, so it was the horizontal bars for us. Even our cats - a pair of female littermates - had to go around completely striped. Dark times, my friends, dark times.