Main Street, September 1971
It's always a good day when I can share more "Lou and Sue" images! These are from Lou's 1971 trip to the park, and he had a certain young girl with him... but you won't see her today. Stay tuned! Lou took a number of beautiful photos of Main Street on a gorgeous sunny September day, the kind of photos that make me wish I could step into them.
Crowds are pretty light, all things considered. It's nice to see the Sunkist Citrus House, the Penny Arcade, and the Candy Palace. "What do you mean you don't have any ZotZ??". I love to make a scene. "You'll be hearing from my bowling league!". No, anything but that.
I wish I wasn't so full of Sunkist juice bars, because I now want an ice cream sundae. I want it! I want it now! (Remember what I said about making a scene?). Clippety-clop, here comes the Horse Drawn Streetcar.
Lou remembered to look up, and he took a picture of some of the shop signs. "Rings & Things", which sold jewelry and stuff. Burry's Cookies was one of the lessees in the Market House. Swift had left the building (they got a ride on Elvis' helicopter), and a number of different sponsors moved in for varying lengths of time. In fact Burry's Cookies would be done sometime this very year.
THANK YOU, Lou and Sue!
22 comments:
What!? Three Main Street photos and only one trashcan?! How is that even possible??
OK, now that I got that out of my system, more great "you are there" photos from Lou Perry. They're modern-looking enough that we can pretend we're actually there.
I've never heard of Burry's Cookies before. Like you said, they must have been there for only a short time.
"I want it! I want it now!". Major is giving us his best Veruca Salt impression. Thanks, Major. And thank you, Lou P. and Sue B., tubi. I was watching "Dark Shadows" on tubi tonight.
This is the way it should be … there’s a festive bustle … but it’s not obscenely packed with people and their tiny backpacks … placing their food orders on the mobile AP …. Carrying 4 lb plastic popcorn buckets waiting 6 hours in advance to see a fireworks show….
Those guests are walking right down the middle of Main Street USA ….. it’s the heart of America … the heartbeat of a holiday … the place was made with a magical plan and right around her the corner is a Fantasyland….. they’re walking right down the middle of Main Street USA.
Thanks Lou and sue and Major!!
Burry Cookies was the longest producer of GIRL SCOUT COOKIES I believe they still make them today.
I think the Major is channeling Baby Jane Hudson..."I don't care, I want an ice cream. I WANT IT!"
And Mike is definitely channeling a 1985 Marie Osmond....before she was fainting on Dancing With The Stars....and pushing the NuMi app from Nutrisystem....and hawking questionable supplements for achy joints.
Thanks for the 1970's Main St. pics, Lou, Sue, and Major, too!
This is how I first saw Disneyland…except at a lower angle since I was only 2½. Sat on the curb right where the stroller is in the second photo and watched the Disneyland Band march by while drinking a milk through a straw stuck through a hole in the top of the red Carnation carton. Never been the same since.
Burry cookies…that’s a memory. My mom was the cookie coordinator for my sister’s Brownie troop for three years in a row. Back in those days, they didn’t sell them in front of supermarkets, only door-to-door, and GSUSA wouldn’t let the troop buy partial cartons, so if only one girl in the entire troop sold only one box of Sour Quince Swirls or whatever, to meet that order they had to buy a whole carton. Guess who was stuck buying the rest of the unsold product? I ate a lot of Burry cookies for three years. Pretty sure I still have a brown cardboard carton for Thin Mints somewhere (storing something else - Thin Mints had a short life expectancy in our house)…and that was more than 40 years ago.
Thanks again, Lou & Sue!
White belt, rust brown corduroy pants, shaggy hair, might have been me.
Distinct shortage of (visible) trash cans, but that horse is a great artist, he’s drawn a beautiful street car. All I can draw are flies.
Chuck that is quite a memory. Also, in my garage cupboard right now is a 30 y.o. strawberry creams box holding car washing stuff. I remember stacks of cookie boxes reaching to the ceiling of our little house.
Thanks Lou, Sue & Major!
JG
Gotta love Main Street! What a great color scheme it had back then. It felt more authentic. I wonder if any imagineer or management thought to restore Main Street to its original colors as it was in the 1950's. Or maybe the current guests would look at it and not appreciate it as much.
As I ramble on...
Thank you, Lou & Sue. Your pics are always a joy to see.
And thanks to you too, Major.
The colors on that first shot really POP. I much prefer the strollers of the past...and I'm sure Disney management does too. They were appropriately sized to the scale of Main Street. September...my favorite month of the year. Add to that as a CM, there was a noticeable downturn in attendance immediately on Labor Day. The day before Labor Day (which would be Sunday) really was the end of the summer season to me. For those of us CMs who worked there a number of years, you could just see and 'feel' it. Everyone was heading home on Labor Day to go back to work or start school. Even the permanent part time CMs who were teachers would disappear that week...only to return on the weekends until Christmas season. For Labor Day week, the Park would still be open on a summer schedule, perhaps 1 less operating hour, and all entertainment would still be going. THAT was the time I recommended to family and friends to visit. KS
Major-
Lou left a nice present from the past for us to ponder: another beehive hairdo in the 2nd image. Our lady friend was trying to hide behind the lamppost, but didn't quite make it.
Thanks to Lou and Sue.
Chuck, Thin Mints had a short life expectancy in our house, too. Very short. Nowadays, I just get Keebler Grasshopper cookies from the store. They don't last long either.
JG, horse, artist, draw, street car, flies... Thanks for the guffaw!
JB, there was a famous trashcan shortage in the early 1970s. Burry’s… not sure how I know of them, but the name has been something I’m aware of for many years. Veruca Salt is my role model!
Mike Cozart, I agree with you - but I don’t know what they can do when 50,000 people want to go to the park every day. They’ve tried different methods, to not-great success - what I DON’T care for is the idea of “let’s price it so high that only rich people can afford to go!”. I guess that making the guests have reservations is probably as good as anything, even though it is a huge pain in the butt.
Mike Cozart, I remember liking some Girl Scout Cookies, but man, they aren’t very good today. Except for thin mints in the freezer.
TokyoMagic!, I’m Baby Major Pepperidge! Did Marie Osmond really faint on “Dancing With the Stars”? I don’t watch that show, but admit that I am probably going to look for a YouTube clip ASAP.
Chuck, this really was a wonderful time to visit the park, and at a certain age, I’m sure kids are overwhelmed (in a good way) with all of the sensory overload. How often to children see a marching band these days? “Sour Quince Swirls”, hmmm! Almost as good as the “Caviar Crisps”! We always had at least one neighbor with a daughter, and we would be sworn to buy ONLY from them. Now my mom doesn’t even want the cookies. “Can I just give the Girl Scouts ten dollars?”. They always say yes!
JG, someday “burgundy” colored pants will come back in style. I’m counting on it! As for white belts… fingers crossed. I didn’t know that Strawberry Creams was a flavor of Girl Scout Cookies. Maybe it’s obsolete?
K. Martinez, sadly I don’t think that most people appreciate the more realistic, subtle hues of the original Main Street. They need to be hit over the head with BRIGHT colors. Ugh.
KS, yes, those reasonable strollers aren’t so bad - small, and able to hold a child, not supplies for summiting Everest. I just bought a license plate that was used on the 70’s era strollers, blue with yellow raised lettering just like the California plates of that era (and it says “Disneyland”). Interesting that Labor Day really was a demarcation from one season to another. Not so today!
Nanook, good old beehive hairdos! Augmented by “wiglets”? Maybe! We had a teacher who always had a little wig on top of her real hair, it didn’t quite match. We called her “Wiggy” - not so she could hear us of course.
JB, I dunno, grasshopper-flavored cookies - popular in Europe??
^ At least they're better than the slug-flavored cookies.
"JB, there was a famous trashcan shortage in the early 1970s."
Major, I clearly remember that trashcan shortage in the early 1970s...
I recall sitting in a loooong line of cars, waiting our turn to purchase one.
And prices skyrocketed. Some states only let you purchase one on 'odd/even days' -
depending on your license plate number.
Today my dad was wearing a Disneyland sweatshirt and someone commented to him,
"I hear you and your daughter like Disneyland." He responded, "We LOVE Disneyland!"
And Main Street was his favorite area to photograph. Thanks for all your nice comments.
Now I think I'll step into that second image and get some Fresh Lemonade. Come join me...
Thanks, Major.
Bouffant bonanza! In glorious photo #1 I wondered if that woman in white was Ginny’s dour little sister Henrietta? With two more on the same block it is certainly go to Do of the day.
MS
Never heard of the cookie shop, sweet!
My sister sold Girl Scout cookies … so we had them in the house …. Then my three nieces sold Girl Scout cookies …. And now the cookies are repulsive to me …. I’m probably one of the few humans on earth that doesn’t care for Thin Mints … but I don’t look mint in any food … it’s fine for gum, candy , tooth paste and some cocktails … but I don’t like in food.
The Girl Scout cookies are regional .. abs vary on the bakery that supplies them … sone are standard offerings but then there are the variants … the offerings from Girl Scouts in Orange County are better than the ones from San Diego county ….
To keep peace I bought cookies from each of my nieces …. But each year I’d make them “sell” me cookies … make them explain why I should buy cookies from them when I could just go to the store and buy any cookie I want … the first year my middle niece Abby sold cookies ( she’s now a junior at Stanford)she knew there was a good reason and thought about it then said “ well Girl Scout cookies give desert to people who don’t have any …” lol!! Good enough for me!
JB, happy to oblige. Glad you enjoyed. These things come to me in my dreams.
Major, the strawberry creams (cremes?) were a new flavor in the early 90's, but I have no idea if they are still around. I liked them, but all the girls (including Mrs. G) wanted the chocolate mints.
Like Mike C, I am not a fan of mint things, except Disney Mint Juleps and Kentucky Mint Juleps with real bourbon, nor of chocolate things. I'll skip dessert if chocolate stuff is all that is available. Must be my communist leanings, because I don't like baseball either.
The Girl Scout cookies were farmed out on spec to various bakeries, I think they bid on the contracts. I remember there was some controversy about some of the placements, but can't remember what the fuss was about.
Fun pics today!
JG
"My sister sold Girl Scout cookies."
Reminds me of comedian Donna Jean Young (no longer with us), who appeared on Johnny Carson and numerous TV and game shows back in the '60s and '70s. Her shtick was being extremely nervous and awkward in front of an audience, but in a naive, unknowing sort of way. One of her signature lines was: "When I was a cookie I sold Girl Scouts!"... Well, it was funny when she said it.
I used to work with someone at Disney who was always making chocolate chip cookies for events and party’s …. But she’d always burn the bottoms … and sometimes add mint extract to the batter …..
I’m one of a select few who know exactly what toothpaste after a fire tastes like …….
There was a very expensive restaurant in Seattle …. And they were famous for their chocolate mousse desert …. One of the visits they had addd mint to it … we jokingly called it MOACHA FRESH
I’m one of a select few who know exactly what chocolate toothpaste tastes like.
^ When I was a kid, there used to be (maybe still is?) Choc-O-Mint Life Savers. I sorta liked 'em (but preferred others). Cryst-O-Mint Life Savers were "of the Devil" (thanks, Major), they could burn a hole through your tongue and out the bottom of your jaw.
I loved those Choc-O-Mint Live Savers, JB. There's a little candy shop that carries the candy of the past, near me. I'll have to look for those, next time. Maybe they are still out there??
Mike, you made me chuckle. Sometimes, when I order frozen custard from Culver's, I ask for vanilla with a little of the green mint sauce added - and lots of Andes Mint pieces on top. One of the managers calls it the toothpaste sundae, as it grosses him out, too. But I haven't tried it with chocolate frozen custard. I'll have to do so, next time.
Speaking of Girl Scout cookies, remember when the boxes were at least double the current size, and only 50 cents a box? Over 50 years ago.
I know the big difference in Girl Scout cookies was that one bakery made "Samoas" and the other made similar, but not identical "Caramel Delites." Each had their fans that would not accept the other cookie.
In my town, there are a few people who don't want cookies but want to support the Girl Scouts, so they buy cookies to be delivered to our volunteer EMS and FD.
When I was deployed, I always appreciated the folks who would buy Girl Scout cookies from their local troops to have distributed by the national organization to Servicemembers overseas. Well, all except the night I ate an entire box of Samoas instead of going to dinner. One of the worst stomach aches I ever had, Not the cookies’ or the donors’ fault, though; there’s a reason there is a suggested serving size right there on the box. To this day, though, I can’t eat more than one without getting queasy.
Post a Comment