Monday, January 09, 2017

More From DrGoat

Here are two more great photos from the personal collection of DrGoat! I really love this first one, and can't think of any other photo in which I've seen people climbing up that gangway (or whatever it's called) to board the Columbia). Cool! Peter says:

(This photo shows us) going up the gangway to the Columbia. Same group - mother Mary, her sister Louise, and Dad with the bag of goodies we were allowed to buy and fawn over when we got back to Tucson.


Next is this photo of a classic parade led by Mickey Mouse himself, marching down Main Street with the Disneyland Band.

(This next one) I believe was in '61, Main Street obviously. I do remember the weather was beautiful and the same kind of summer feeling you get that was perfectly described in Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine.

"Dandelion Wine"! I have many fond memories of reading that wonderful book when I was a kid.


THANK YOU, DrGoat!

13 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

And I see you have your ticket to ride all ready! Actually, I guess you would have given that to the ticket taker at the entrance to the dock. Do you still have any of your souvenirs from these park visits? Thanks for sharing more of your family photos with us, Peter!

Nanook said...

Peter-

That picture of the Columbia is a beaut-! And I see someone is wearing clam diggers.

Thanks for sharing your family pics.

Chuck said...

Judging by the shadows, that photo of the marching band was taken in the late afternoon. I wonder if it was en route to Town Square to play The Star Spangled Banner for the flag-lowering ceremony.

Peter, your reference to Dandelion Wine communicates perfectly the sort of day that it was. If only summertime crowds were this light today.

Thanks so much for sharing these!

DrGoat said...

My pleasure. Alas Tokyo, I have very few things left from that ancient time. I do have a ticket book, but from later, like in '68. Also a red pennant-like flag with Mickey on it. From '58 or '59 I think. The only reason I still have that is that my Mom ended up with it and she was good about keeping certain things. Nanook, I forgot they were called clam diggers. I think I was just into the stripes on the side since clams were hard to come by in Tucson. And Chuck, I wish there were a lot of things that were this light today.

Scott Lane said...

Great shots and great memories. Thanks for sharing them.

Now I need to dig out my old Bradburys for a re-reading...

K. Martinez said...

Oh, man! Dandy Dandelion Wine sums it up perfectly. I was an avid reader of Ray Bradbury when I was a kid. Like Scott, I'm going to have to look for my old Bradbury books and do some re-reading.

Thanks for sharing your family photos with us, Peter. They're a great start to my day!

Unknown said...

I wonder from where the band is marching. I think they would play occasionally over in Magnolia Park (of Fantasyland, as we've recently seen) and maybe then march down for the flag retreat ceremony. Of course today the parades have routes onto and off stage at either end of the parade route. Did the band just play a lot more often and have a fairly full set of gigs throughout the day? Cool if they did...

Anonymous said...

Thanks Dr. G. and Major. These are splendid. I have an almost identical parade pic, although from much later, maybe 68-69, with Mickey in the lead.

JG

Sunday Night said...

Just saw that Kodak is reintroducing Extachrome film and Super Eight film. I thought GDB readers might be interested.

walterworld said...

Sunday Night: No way! Cool, they should know how to do that. They are just a shell of a company at this point though right?

My wife just ordered up some Fuji Chrome 200 as we had just decided to check out film again after saying goodbye back in 2007.

As for the post, thank you DrGoat, and special thanks for bringing up Dandelion Wine. Chapter 20 'The Trolley' and Chapter 25 when Colonel Freeleigh calls Mexico before passing are favorites. But the book is full of such. Just like the photos you shared.

Thanks again, and thanks to the Major for providing the perfect platform for sharing things such as this.

Major Pepperidge said...

I sort of feel like most of these comments were for Peter - so I’m leaving those to him! But…

JG, you’re welcome.

Sunday Night, wow, that is amazing, and kind of strange news. The convenience and proliferation of digital photography seems like it would make film as obsolete as we thought five years ago. What has changed, I wonder? I’m not against it, I’m just wondering.

walterworld, I am a bit surprised, it seems like all of the GDB regulars have read “Dandelion Wine”. I didn’t know that book was so well known! It was a favorite of my mom’s when she was a teen, and I read her well-worn copy. Maybe I need to revisit it, after all these years. Thanks for the nice words!

walterworld said...

Major, I only read Dandelion Wine 5 or 6 years ago but it struck me as a true work of genius, and a neat 'peek-in' to life as it may have been at a little past the turn of the (last) century.

As far as film photography goes, I've observed the same phenomenon happening in vintage audio. About 5 years ago for whatever reason (it's a long story) I went on eBay and looked up all of the fantastic audio gear that I couldn't afford back in the 70's when I was a pre-teen (Sansui, Pioneer, Marantz. etc.), and acquired some very nice units. You can still find some good deals on great old stuff, and they sound far better than the garbage being sold today as 'hi-fi'.

In the same way real film photography has something over digital...a certain 'realness' that digital pics cannot capture.

I was sorry to leave film back in 2007, but it seemed that I was the last dinosaur around and the film aisle had became quite small.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a new generation discover the joy of film and real, physical photo prints over digital pictures that get stuck in your phone.

DrGoat said...

Just thanks to all for giving these a look. All the people in these photos are gone, with the exception of my sister, so it's nice to see them 'live' again.
Walterworld..the chapter with the call to Mexico is also one of my favorites. I've also been reading some Jack Vance lately to escape the reality of what's going on in the world. Gets a bit silly at times but I love his writing style.
Thanks again to all.
K.Matinez...it's a great start to my day reading these comments.