Before my time, but not ancient to me. I remember Old Walt holding court on Sunday nights on TV when I was a kid. For some reason, I mostly remember his clothes. He seemed to be nothing more than a delivery system for exactly 1/2″ of white cuff showing and a pocket square, pure white.
The park was always an abstraction to families like us. It was on the other end of the continent. That sort of vacation was foreign to us. It was something for really wealthy people, you know, like plumbers or car salesmen.
The kids in the video all grew up and completely rejected the culture that produced them, and that built that park. Their children all go to the park. I assume they go alone, because they don’t seem to have any kids.
4 Responses
Yes, they go alone or in gangs. I wish I was joking about that.
Took my kids twice. We were some states away, so flew.
We moved from the Boston area to Anaheim, CA in 1957. Our house was less than a quarter mile from the park. Spent my high school years at the park – they had lots of "student" nights on the weekends. My sister went to work there, met her husband and they moved to Orlando when World opened. He was an executive in the properties division, eventually becoming GM of Ft. Wilderness. I'm in Orlando now and listen to the fireworks every night. At least they're not going off in the backyard like they did in CA.
My paternal grandparents lived in Irvine and I took the train from Sacramento to LA all by myself to attend on opening day with a gaggle of cousins. I was 10 years old and it was magical.