California 1968 Trip Part 8

This project is taking longer than I thought! Maybe I will finish it by the end of the year. The memory of the rest of this trip is shaky and not quite in order but no matter. We camped down the street from Disneyland. How dad found this place I don’t know but we got in. Seems it was quite close quarters but nobody bothered each other that I remember. Almost everyone there was there to go to Disneyland, guaranteed.  Except the Joads…they went picking fruit somewhere….

Disneyland was NOT the Disney World it is today. Smaller but plenty to do (I have film sequences). Disney went over the top with Disney World concept once Walt passes away in 1966. The original one practically, we rode a train, did some small rides like the lame boat ride thing and laughed about how lame it was. We rode the skyway cable cars which was really cool because you could see everything, What impressed me the most to this day was the fact that dad, at 48 years old, took on the Matterhorn rollercoaster ride, never blinked an eyeball…he couldn’t…he had them shut, aha. But no heart attack. But I realized years later he had been in planes over the Pacific in WWII shooting at Japs and being shot at…this must have been a carriage ride on a Sunday afternoon to him. Mom didn’t ride this one…she wanted to keep her lunch…

Dan and I must have looked like silent movie stars with that zinc oxide on our faces and arms. Dan was especially vulnerable to sunburn on his face at that age (9) and had to keep putting the stuff on. But I was no sun proof mannequin either. [Speaking of Mannequin, we went to the Hollywood Wax Museum later].

We must have been in kid heaven that day, even looking in the souvenir shops. Dan got a hat and I got a hat. I had that gray straw hat with the feather in it for decades after that but it finally wore out. I did not wear it much past the first year at home and only on rare occasions. It was just cool to have a hat from Disneyland at the time. Plus we got white ceramic Disneyland tall cups with our name on it, gold lettering saying Disneyland and our name. I still have my cup and it was included in a photo of old stuff I had I sent out a few years back. I do not even remember all the rides and often confuse the rides with our visit to Florida Disney World in December 1975. I don’t remember if it was Disney World or Disney Land we rode the pirate ride where the keep singing “Yo Ho Yo ho, a pirate’s life for me” lol. I bet it was in Florida 1975. 

On home movies we show the cable car, the Matterhorn as seen from the sidewalk, a train ride, and boat ride and at the end our last ride, a crazy tea cup ride. All this stuff now seems quite tame compared to Cedar Point, Six Flags and Disney world and other places. But back then it was primo. Evidence we were spoiled kids, but hey, we were not that rich...it was a case of future visionary thinking in the back of their minds no doubt: “you only live once, your kids won’t be this age ever again, neither will your parents” so if you can afford it, go have the time of your life. Our parents did not have this kind of childhood; it was pretty rough during the depression and WWII era, so they were also secretly living it now. Thanks to our parents, we still have our memories of this great day and trip, even if through rose colored glasses. That day was the very definition of rose colored glasses and if I could afford to take less fortunate kids there with me, I would.  I am very grateful for that day at Disneyland at age 12, even though time has erased a lot of accurate memory.

Seems the next day (I never remember campground activities much anymore lol) we went to Knott’s Berry Farm first, nearby. Now it seems like a non event. Not much going on there. I have seen videos of what it looks like now, I just remember a stage with a roof and outdoor concert area and that’s about it. That’s the famous stage where in 1973 the Everly Brothers were playing their show and one of them walked off the show, couldn’t stand it anymore and they split up for ten years, not speaking to each other. Perhaps the other brother had bad breath…Knott’s Berry Farm It was like going back to Disneyland and visiting Frontier land only I guess. I always wondered why Don Knotts and Chuck Berry picture together was never displayed…what a great gag that would have been. Berry funny… okay so I am a real Knott Head…

We them went to the Hollywood Wax Museum. Well one of them, I never really knew which one was the official one, but this was a fantastic place. They had Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy (caption was “A Perfect Day,” the name of one of their film shorts, they were sitting in the old Model T car), Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain, hanging from the lamp post like he did  in the dance routine (a vision permanently imprinted in m brain). Bonanza with Lorne Green all 3 brothers standing in front the Ponderosa house (man that was scary; I thought they were real for a second-the show was very popular at the time). So many I don’t remember now that was fascinating to a kid. The probably had the Marx Brothers…wait…YES! They did! And Marilyn Monroe, but I am fuzzy on all the others. I am sure there was no David Niven…no one cares about him lol. Probably Frank Sinatra. I remember thinking “Hey! No Beatles?” Well, what else would I think? Dan probably thought the same thing for the Monkees!

Then at the end a solid cement figure of Frankenstein of which we had our picture taken, “professionally” with him. Black and White Photo.

From recent e-mails:

Dan:  “I do remember going to the Hollywood wax museum and it was pretty cool, and we took that pic of you and I with the Frankenstein, oh sorry, Frankensteen wax figure lol.”

Tom: “Regarding the Hollywood Wax Museum we went to, we had a photo of us taken with Frankenstein statue with Dan one side and me standing on the other side: don’t know if that photo is still around. I think it got damaged in a flooded basement incident years ago at our old house when dad was still there by himself, or maybe earlier. I’ll look for it later though.

 It was displayed for years and years on the fireplace mantel until in the 1980’s mom decided to file it somewhere, and later it wound up in the basement in the lower drawer of Dan's old childhood desk. Why I don’t know. But seems I recall it got stuck to another photo due to basement flooding or something and we could separate them without destroying the photos. 

Tom:  “I do remember that Frankenstein photo, but with your face all covered in zinc oxide it was hard tell the difference between Frankenstein and you lol”

Wouldn't it be weird to have a "Family Wax Museum," relatives and parents, pets, and old friends as wax figures?