Beautiful Rivers of America & Canoes
It's time for more scans, graciously shared with us by the Mysterious Benefactor!
Here's another pretty picture of the Rivers of America, looking south (or southwest-ish?). The old fishing dock is to our right, and I believe that the shack might have been restrooms (not sure though). In the distance, New Orleans Square.
The next four photos feature the Canoes, including two from the early-morning cast member races. "Paddle! Paddle for your miserable lives!". Hey, they take this stuff seriously. I like the look of the sunlight through the misty morning air. "I'm sorry I said your lives were miserable, you are all very special to me and I love you!".
Whoa, look at that wake, the canoe is going Mach 2 at least. Did the cast members get to practice before the event? Did they all drink large glasses filled with raw eggs first? The fellow in back looks like he's got the arm muscles to propel this canoe to VICTORY!
Next is this very colorful photo with a canoe, caught perfectly with Cascade Peak right behind it. The purples and pinks make me think "1980s", though it is just a guess. I'm always amused at photos like this, there are the troupers who do their best (even a few grannies), and the people who just sit there and enjoy the ride.
And one last canoe pic for the day; one vessel is well underway in the distance, while the one closest to us has just launched. The CM in front is giving everyone a lesson in how to operate the thing; he's about to tell them what to do in case the little oxygen masks deploy. There's Chief Wavy in the distance, I don't remember him ever being that close to the water's edge. But there's photographic proof!
MANY THANKS to the Mysterious Benefactor!
EXTRA! EXTRA!
A GDB friend who seems to wish to remain anonymous saved this red shirt, a souvenir from 1986. "Gee, Major, that's a swell shirt, and looks to be 100% cotton, but... what's so great about an old shirt?".
When you look at the back, you can see what's great about it! This is a souvenir from the 1986 Cast Member Canoe Races! Definitely not something you see very often (if at all). The art was done by Jeff Lee, and it pictures two Tour Guides, a woman with a mostly-traditional plaid outfit, including the hat and riding crop (maybe the skirt is a bit short!). The male TG is displaying his right to bare arms, which apparently caused something of a stir. Anonymous says Obviously, the name of the Canoe team was a take on the “Totally Minnie” promotions/parade etc. going on that year. Girl Power before her time! The shirt was a bit of a scandal at the time: how silly…shirtless TG’s: so very scandalous… I am outraged, I tell you!
THANKS to Anonymous, and artist Jeff Lee!
10 comments:
Major-
Cascade Peak AND a custom tee shirt. Very cool.
Thanks to 'anonymous' and The Major.
1) This would be a 'just OK' picture, EXCEPT for those tree branches swooping into frame from above. That makes it a BEAUTIFUL picture! Judging from the exterior of the restroom shack, the interior must have been equally rustic. I'm envisioning a rough-hewn board with one, maybe two 'holes' that 'empty' directly into the RoA. [ Foghorn Leghorn: "That's a jo..., I say, that's a joke, son."]
2) Are we sure these are CMs? A lot of those guys don't have the Disney-fied shortish haircuts. I can imagine hearing ducks (regular ducks, not AEDs) quacking when I view this misty, early morning shot.
3) Mach 2 = 1,534.54 mph. I think Major exaggerated just a wee bit. That canoe doesn't look like it's going any faster than Mach 1 to me.
4) That's a really nice photo of the Canoe in front of Cascade Peak. Deep, saturated colors. I wonder how it happened that there were so many "grannies" on board?
5) I hope the CM is also telling his 'crew' to paddle for their lives, because they're about to be attacked by that squadron of AEDs!
T-shirt art: I guess "bare arms" counts as risqué in Disney Land. Why, the lady TG is showing a bit more than just her ankles! How about THAT?!?
Thanks once again to MB and MP.
The canoe team is going as fast as they are to try to avoid being run down by the Mark Twain. Mach 2 - twice the speed of sound - varies with altitude and temperature. Using Disneyland’s 138 ft altitude above MSL and assuming 66°F (reasonable for an early-morning canoe race), I am in concurrence with JB’s calculations.
The photo with all the colorful clothing is definitely post-BTM, as you can see the (totally illogically staged) “train wreck” in the background using leftover NWRR equipment. It feels mid-to-late ‘80s to me.
Chief Wavy looks closer to the water than I remember, too. This must have been taken during the Great Disneyland Flood.
The Team Tour Guide T-shirt is terrific!
Many thanks to today’s nameless donors, the MB and Anonymous!
Very grateful to the Major’s Anonymous Sources for these pictures. Major, your years in clandestine services are paying off!
Yes, the shack in photo 1 is/was a restroom. Might be closed now in the plan to shut down the Island to guests.
JB, funny story, my Uncle Hal came with us on a visit when I was about 10, I said I was heading to the restroom, he tried to tell me it was going to be like you described, but of course, inside was all modern fixtures and white tile. Theming FTW.
Photo 2 is beautiful, photo 3 mildly terrifying. I think I can just spot the fire bell in photo 4, blue hat guy is freeloading, and in photo 5, Chief Wavy brings his horse down to the River for a drink. As I recall, he was a static figure which would be easy to move, no utilities or hydraulics etc. Or did his arm move? Maybe I’m wrong and he needed a long extension cord.
That T-shirt is definitely a collectors item! Fun to see these “members-only” memorabilia, thank you!
JG
I remember that many of the Canoe Race team names very much “walked the line” and so many were denied or required alteration for being to “un - Disney”….I always declined being on a canoe race team because the trials/ practices and final races were held so very very early in the mornings … and often my schedule started at 7:00 already. I think Canoe teams could be comprised of any Disney employee …. But I cannot remember if none Disney employee team members were allowed or not. One of the Canoe team names that a friend of mine team was called …. And made it thru was “STROKE-A-HONTIS” .
The staged mine train wreck using the last surviving locomotives of the four Natures Mine Trains went in 1986. ( however there is some speculation that a SECOND mine train loco survives in a private collection due to some recently discovered 45 year old property control paperwork…. It will be interesting to see if it ever surfaces in an auction or sale.
This brings tears to my face and thoughts of being soaked with that wonderful river water in the wee hours of the morning with the idea that our team would ever be competitive. I still have my "Hills Angels '69" T shirt while others seemed to have been lost to time. Well one of them ended in the drink in Belmont Shore when a friend's HobieCat...along with me and him... went completely over. Of course came my time with the guys working the canoes. We had some pretty competitive teams, but then again, we were paddling for a living. One had to be a CM...or from the Hotel or "Leassie" (sp?) to be on a team, let alone get access to the park. And you had to work the facility you were representing. But that didn't mean you'd have a few "ringers" assigned to a specific attraction. Canoes had a good number of 'jocks'...football players, wrestlers and such onboard. Ah, great memories.
JG, not sure about his biomechanics on the date when this photo was taken, but by the early '90s, Chief Wavy turned his torso towards the larger passing vehicles (the trains or the big decks) and raised his right arm in friendly greeting. Not sure what the priority was when one type of vehicle hit the trip switch when one of another was already passing; I'm assuming the hand raising and lowering cycle would complete for one vehicle before he turned and waved at the other.
Anonymous, I'm not sure I what to think of "soaked with that wonderful river water" and "wee" being used in the same sentence... ;-)
In the last river photo, you can see the AED 'emblem' on the back side of that last canoe. That's probably why those AED's aren't attacking that particular canoe. Just my assumption.
What a wonderful experience for the CM's to be able to enjoy the RoA in the quiet, early morning hours.
These are all great shots. And I especially love that T-shirt. I bet it was worn by a winning team. BTW, KS, I love the name of your team, too.
Thanks, MB, MP & Anon.
Hi folks, sorry about my absence yesterday, it was “one of those days”.
Nanook, I can’t help wondering how much that shirt would fetch on the collector’s market!
JB, wow, a bathroom with actual wooden boards inside to sit on? That is true luxury! Thinking about the sewer issues on Tom Sawyer Island makes me want to change the subject. Only another CM can tell us if those people are also CMs. I’m unaware of any other kind of canoe races on the river. And HEY, when I say a canoe is going Mach 2, I mean that it is going Mach 2! My expertise must not be questioned. Maybe that one photo was taken on Granny Day (Grannies got in for half price). AED’s… “hard facts” of the Frontier. I once saw a lady’s ankle out in public, and I nearly fainted.
Chuck, as you know, I studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Canoe Technology (or MICT), and am aware of the subtleties of the sound barrier. I wrote a 500 page paper about it! Admittedly, half of the paper consisted of funny “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strips, but I still got an “A” with a smiley face (the highest honor at MICT). I think the Mine Train wreck was supposed to show a train that had been clobbered by a landslide? Not sure though. The Great Disneyland Flood is little-remembered today, but you can still see signs of the high water if you know where to look.
JG, wait, is there really a plan to shut down Tom Sawyer Island?? How did I not hear about this? If so, ARGH. Let’s build an animatronic of Walt, but rip out anything he actually had a hand in. Your Uncle Hal sounds like my uncle, always with the jokes! Why is photo #2 “mildly terrifying”? Maybe you can see ghosts? Chief Wavy’s arm does move in a friendly salute, though I don’t know if it always did. I’m trying to think if I’ve ever seen another cast member canoe t-shirt, and I sure can’t remember any.
Mike Cozart, I suppose that “rules are rules” at Disneyland, but you’d think they could bend them a little bit for an event that did not involve the general public. It depends on just how “spicy” they got! I like the idea of the canoe races, but like you, would also not want to get up at 5:00 AM (or whenever). “Stroke-a-hontis”, I love it. I’ve been hearing about that wrecked mine train for years, how some group is attempting to restore it, but man, it is taking a long time.
Anonymous, wow, a canoe race shirt from 1969! I’ll bet there were plenty of teams that were just there to be a part of the fun and didn’t really expect to win or even care that much. Versus the teams that wanted to win AT ALL COSTS. Was there a trophy? Or just “bragging rights”? I was going to ask if one had to be a Frontierland cast member, but you answered that question. Do they still do canoe races?
Chuck, wow, I don’t recall Chief Wavy’s body turning, I thought he had the most basic “arm goes up, arm goes back down” movement. Was there an “electric eye” to activate his motion? Or maybe somebody on the Mark Twain (etcetera) did a secret hand gesture? And yes, the thought of that river water makes me think of eye infections.
Lou and Sue, I never considered that AEDs could “read” the emblems on the canoes, but of course they did have the power of a mega-computer. I sure hope JG was joking about the plan to shut down Tom Sawyer Island, that would be a real “dagger in the heart”.
A trophy and huge bragging rights for sure Major! KS
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