The Sunday before we were to leave for our trip, my sister and I were at the movies (then it was 25 cents to get in! Oh, oh, I'm dating myself!) and all of a sudden, my dad comes in to get us out in the middle of the movie and told us that the Disneyland Special was on and mom didn't want us to miss it! This program got us so excited we could hardly stand it! All the way down to Anaheim (from Northern California) my dad kept pointing out all the billboards that said something new and exciting about Disneyland so you can imagine what kind of state these two little kids were in.
The first sign of Disneyland that you saw as you came off of the freeway was the towers of the castle. My parents had made reservations at a hotel (Picture #1) which we think was the Alpine Motel because it was the only motel just behind the Disneyland parking lot. This is my sister and I standing with the then owners of the motel. We were on a very tight budget and spent 2 nights at the hotel and one day at the park. Of course, the park didn't have as many attractions and rides then so we were able to pretty much see everything.
As you can see (Picture #2), the front entrance area where Floral Mickey is, was pretty bare of plants and some of the people were quite dressed for rides in their dresses and suits! Amazingly the train station looks just about the same! (Here's my mom, sister and I standing in front). A photo (Picture #3) of Main Street (slightly blurred) - you can see this is toward the end just as you reach town square. In front of the castle, (Picture #4) again you can see how bare the lawn areas are and look at the great fence! My dad, sister and I are standing next to gold/white flag.
Unfortunately some of the pictures are not clear but you can tell this (Picture #5) is the Tea Cups with the Peter Pan Ship in the background. I remember that it was permanently docked there and that you could walk on board and eat. It was also a restaurant or snack bar. We went there many times and was very sad when they removed it! There were little white ticket kiosks in each "land" where you purchased tickets for the rides. This is the Mark Twain! (Blurred!) (Picture #6) Much clearer (Picture #7 & Picture #8) - are my mom, sister and I in front of the Jungle Cruise (Bare of foliage!). No ears for us! We wanted to be color coordinated!
Tomorrowland (Picture #9) sure has changed, hasn't it?!! My sister remembers there were view masters affixed to a wall in different heights for adults and kids somewhere in Tomorrowland which showed future attractions that were in the works.
Well, I'm saving these photos (Picture #10 & Picture #11) for last because this is what started this whole report on our trip. My dear mom had found this picture of my sister and I in Fantasyland with this clown (?) and gave it to me as a gift three years ago which happened to be when Disneyland was celebrating it's 40th Anniversary and I said wouldn't be great if we could find the same exact spot forty years later and take a picture of us standing in that same spot which is what we did!!
Notes from Disneyguy: A huge "Thank-You" goes out to Robin for all of her and her family's hard work on this report. She had to dig through all kinds of pictures and things to prepare this for everyone. This is something I've always wanted on my site, and I'm glad it could come about. Thanks again, Robin!
