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50 years ago today we kids in our family missed the TV Opening of Disneyland as our relatives all went Sunday driving that afternoon from Portland, Oregon to Oregon's beautiful Pacific coast. So we listened to it live on car radios in...
1955 Nash Rambler
1954 Oldsmobile 88
1953 Studebaker 2 door coupes.
But by the Fall of that same year we had all moved to Southern California. I was suddenly within bicycle riding distance of WALT's brand new Park, just 15 miles from Long Beach where my family had parked itself. And I took advantage of this with great zeal, balloon tire bike and all.
T'was a Beaut-i-ful move.
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How wonderful for you!!!
T'was a Beaut-i-ful move.
My family moved to Santa Monica from upstate New York in 1960. I was six years old. We only stayed six months (my father was a trainee at a defense contractor). But that six months stayed with me the rest of my life.
My parents took me to Disneyland once. I was crazy about science and the space program, and for me the Disneyland experience was a high-voltage blast of the future. I loved steam engines, and their was a real steam engine powering a real river boat. The "moon rocket" ride was my favorite; I think I watched the presentation five times.
The combination of post-war optimism, low-cost energy, the newness of everything on the West Coast, the unbelievable weather, made all of Southern California a wonderland then. A wonderland of freedom, adventure, fun, and optimism. Walt Disney saw that vision and attempted to "bottle it" and charge admission... he called it "Disneyland."
(steely)