Random Knott's! August 2, 1959
I picked out a few less-than-amazing Knott's scans to use up; even if they are not spectacular, they still convey how charming (and sometimes odd) old Knott's was.
When you happen to live in a place where supplies are scarce, you might want to build a house out of spare barrels. If you filled the barrels with dirt, perhaps they would provide a nice insulating effect: cool in the summer, and at least not freezing in the winter. The roof was also made of random pieces of tin, including what appears to be the lids of casks. Santa tried to go down that chimney, but there were no presents for the children that year.
I tried zooming in on those signs in the lower left, and while a few lines were legible, it was mostly a blur.
Those sure are some funny looking chickens. Soon they'll be ready to serve at Cordelia's restaurant. Any idea where that pond was located?
The bank has seen better days - the entire top floor seems to have burned and collapsed. It does not inspire confidence. "Will my savings be FDIC insured?". I wish I could read the notices on the Ghost Town Bulletin Board, I'll bet they were droll has heck. Droll, I say! I think that's the "Red Cliff" locomotive in Chuck's favorite shades of red, yellow-ochre, and milk-chocolate brown.
16 comments:
Major-
'Charming and odd' works for me. You gotta love the quirkiness of it all.
Thanks, Major.
I used to love Cordelia's fried flamingo dinners, but the legs weren't as filling as the chicken legs. That's the one drawback.
The barrel house is still there and still lookin' good. Thanks, Major.
"Funny looking chickens" - hahahahaha!
Good night, folks!
Sue
Darnit, I was the kid who lived in that barrel house, so THAT's why I never got any Christmas presents!
Is the "collapsed bank" still in Ghost Town today?
Sure, you laugh now Ken, but those skinny legs make for the perfect mid century lawn ornament. Even lawn gnomes are jealous. My Gran had two of them in her rose garden back in the day. Love the quirky humor of the Knott's signs. I bet living in that shack was a barrel of laughs. Sorry. Hey Major, keep the Knott's shots coming, thanks!
I do recall the Clampett's had those same Pink Chickens down by the Ceement pond. Jethro was gonna shoot one fer dinner but Miss Jane stopped him. The long neck bone would be good fer stew meat tho.
Nice photo's Major. I always love old Knott's pics regardless of the wow factor.
Hey, Major - if those are chickens, then what's that black and white thing, in the same picture - to the left?
Pink plastic flamingos are so goofy looking that I like them - especially for the nostalgia factor.
In the late 60's, my mom had a plastic hen and chicks in the backyard. Seems so silly, now . . .
Major, thanks for posting these fun pictures!
Sue
Nothing wrong with odd. I wish there were more home-grown odd like old Knotts.
Major, the broken-down bank building is is almost a copy of a real broken-down ruined bank building in the ghost town of Rhyolite in Nevada.
street view >
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.9012218,-116.8292584,2a,85.3y,263.56h,112.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svks66_hCWlKKHJAg2MKzyg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
Rhyolite had a real-life bottle house also, and many of the roofs of the houses (more like shacks, really) were shingled with flattened-out kerosene cans. No flamingoes, though.
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.8973605,-116.8291029,2a,90y,110.35h,95.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0VLiEgjGCt_Rqcu3uIWAtA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
Looking at the aerial, it appears that most of the old wood framed shacks have been removed since my last visit in 2011, only the masonry buildings and the street pattern remain.
I have wondered how the owners of that bank must have felt locking the door for the last time. Or maybe they took the doors with them as a grubstake to the next mining town.
JG
Nanook, when you compare the old Ghost Town at Knott’s to Frontierland at Disneyland, the contrast is very evident!
K. Martinez, one flamingo leg could feed three kids, so it was a great value for your dollar. Thanks for letting me know that the barrel house is still there.
Lou and Sue, good night!
Penna. Andrew, you should have lived in a house made out of buckets like me, I got LOTS of presents. TokyoMagic! probably knows if the collapsed bank is still there, he knows Knott’s about as well as anybody. Chime in, TM!
Jonathan, it’s amazing that the infamous “lawn flamingo” has somehow survived as a thing for over 50 years… people up the street have two of them. If I had a fabulous Tiki bar and backyard, I’d definitely have a few of them to add some color and fun.
Lou and Sue, that’s one of those Chinese chickens, like they use in the salads. Now you know. My mom’s next door neighbor has a mess of a backyard - like the kind you might see along the road out in the country, with whirligigs, rusty stop signs, and tacky faux “folk art” sculptures, and she gave my mom two wooden chickens. My mom felt obliged to display they even though she hated them. Luckily the wood didn’t last long and we had a good excuse to throw them away.
JG, I would love it if Disneyland had a bit of oddness in it. Thanks for the info and photos of the buildings in Rhyolite, looks like a tough place to live. Is it possible that the wood buildings burned? Seems to be a common thing. There is a bottle village in Simi Valley that I have never been to, but a friend went recently. It has severe earthquake damage, but I’d still love to check it out.
Andrew - yes, the bank is still there and plays a prominent role in the Summer time Ghost Town Alive. It's open and Calico Citizen's portray the bankers and tellers. You interact with them for the sake of the story line and some years (like this one just passed) there is a bank robbery!
Major, I suppose it is conceivable that the wood buildings burnt since 2011, but there is no sign of the non-flammable debris like the tin can roofs etc. and all of them are gone, which seems odd too. Since Rhyolite is a protected area (maybe a Nevada State Park? I can't recall), i think they may have just cleaned it up since many were in very bad condition and posed a hazard to passers-by.
There were numerous wood buildings much like these you can see at the Inyo Mine, not far away from Rhyolite.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Inyo+Mine/@36.4971714,-116.7008829,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMrkVOYCtQOiepMJSW8z_13xy4n7VCAD-CPjoK4!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMrkVOYCtQOiepMJSW8z_13xy4n7VCAD-CPjoK4%3Dw203-h121-k-no!7i3264!8i1952!4m5!3m4!1s0x80c7135fddc87f15:0xdd0a63c71c0331f9!8m2!3d36.4971714!4d-116.7008829?hl=en
The mine is a great spot to visit, there are open shafts in the ground to fall into and mine tunnels you can walk right in, with sufficient courage, that is. The Inyo produced gold ore up into the 1940's and closed due to the war.
JG
Irene, that's awesome!
Ahhh . . . this is the Knott's that I remember visiting from my child and young-adult hood. It was so much fun to just amble along and let my imagination run with what was in front of me. Those days and that park seem to have fallen by the wayside.
Thank you, Major, for posting anything Knott's.
W
Irene, I know you love “Ghost Town Alive”! I guess I need to experience it in person, it’s kind of hard to get a real sense of what it’s like just by reading about it.
JG, yeah, it’s possible that they just had to remove the rickety structures due to safety issues. Seems like a shame though. I remember going to Bodie (ghost town) years ago and watching a man steal a small glass bottle from a building. I was a kid, and was so shocked! My guess is that the artifacts are better protected these days. Your mention of mines that you can walk into reminded me of a terrible story about two boys who went into an abandoned mine, and apparently they were overcome with carbon monoxide (or something like that). An invisible killer…
Andrew, you need to go to Knott’s!
Warren Nielsen, nice to hear from you! One of my good friends said he didn’t enjoy Knott’s because it couldn’t hold a candle to Disneyland; But they are apples and oranges - you enjoy them both for their own unique properties. My friend missed out on a lot of fun, in my opinion.
I am late to the party! I'm glad that Irene was able to answer Andrew's question about the bank. I have a hard time getting into the whole "Ghost Town Alive" thing, because it is what displaced the original figures that were inside many of the buildings. They also altered the interiors of the buildings and removed many of the antique set pieces. The antique barber chair was supposedly broken in the process of being moved and was replaced with just a modern day "salon" chair, which sticks out like a sore thumb. During the first summer of Ghost Town Alive, everyone kept saying that the wooden figures would be returned to the "peek-ins" at the end of the summer, but that never happened and now it has been over three years since they were removed. Those figures had been in place since the 1940's!!! I just hate to see whoever is in charge, getting rid of the park's history like that. It would be the same as if they were to bulldoze The Haunted Shack or The Little Chapel By The Lake......oops, too late! :-(
Bleagh! That paint scheme on the locomotive! Too traumatized to comment on anything else.
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