My grandmother took my mother, brother, and me to Disneyland in August of 1955 to celebrate my ninth birthday. I LOVED it! Larry’s family went for the first time in March of 1956 and visited to celebrate his brother and his birthdays nearly every year when they were growing up. Larry’s love affair with theme parks began with his first visit as well.
When we were dating, we went there several times. One of
those times inspired a scene in Larry’s book of short stories, Lakeview
Park. You can find it in the chapter on “George.”
The scene takes place on the Matterhorn ride. They have
since changed the ride vehicles so each passenger has a separate seat. Larry was
sad to see the changes.
We also attended the first and second New Year’s Eve
parties in the park. They were sponsored by local radio station KRLA. Since
they were new at the time, not too many people went. However, by the third year,
ticket prices went up, and many more people went. We stopped going.
But our love for theme parks took us on the adventure of
our lives. (We call ourselves “theme park junkies.”) Larry was hired as a
Project Engineer for the Universal Studios Japan theme park. I was offered a
job in the Osaka office to commence once we arrived in the country. We lived
there for thirty-one months, and wrote a book about our experiences. This
launched our second careers.
We visited Disneyland throughout our daughter’s childhood.
She loved it as much as we did. She even worked there for five years as a
second job, during which time, we bought annual passes each year (the unlimited
ones with parking included). Often we called each other at work. “Do you want
to meet at Disneyland for dinner?” I’d contact Kim to see when she would get
her dinner break. Then we would drive to the park to see her.
In 2005, Kim’s company moved her to Dallas, Texas. She
obviously had to give up her job at Disneyland. In addition, they raised the
prices outrageously. We decided not to renew our passes.
In 2021, for our anniversary and my birthday, we decided to
complete one of my bucket-list items: to spend a night at the Grand
Californian Hotel. I loved the building the first time I saw it. It was
inspired by the Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite, a place I had always wanted to visit.
We spent two nights and got park tickets for three days.
After this wonderful getaway, we realized how much we had
missed our park passes. So, we deiced to get new ones—despite the outrageous
prices.
The only way to make them worthwhile was to go at lest
twice a month, and we have. I also call it “theme park aerobics” because we walk
many miles each time we go.
Last Tuesday, we went to the park. On the bus from the Toy
Story parking lot, we met a neat couple. We discussed what the park was like in
the early days. We were able to tell them about our book, Dominic
Drive, which contains a description of a family trip to Disneyland in
1964. This trip is totally accurate as to the rides and attractions which were
there at the time.
Because we go often, we don’t have a major agenda of rides
we have to go on. We decided to head for the Jungle Cruise. We had a delightful
young woman as captain. She had a few new jokes, so it was fun.
Pirates of the Caribbean was closed, so we detoured through
the French Quarter. Ever since we got our new passes in October, we have been
trying to get reservations at the Blue Bayou Restaurant. No luck. However,
since the ride isn’t working, they put a wall on the ride side of the
restaurant. To our surprise, we got reservations! We used to celebrate special
occasions there. Since Larry’s birthday was the week before, we were thrilled
to be able to go there to celebrate.
We went on the Haunted Mansion (with a new scene) and the Mark
Twain paddle-wheeler. We met Doogie, who is one of the operators. We had a
great conversation with him.
As we were getting off, we noticed they were bringing the
three-masted ship Columbia online. They haven’t run this one for quite
some time. So, after lunch, we went back to ride it. We met a couple of nice
ladies from Canada and enjoyed talking to them.
We boarded the train and discovered they were running the
caboose. We asked and were allowed to ride in it. Took the train around the
park and met some other nice people.
Our passes allow us to change parks after one o’clock. So,
we crossed over using the monorail to get to Downtown Disney.
We love to stop in the hotel lobby to listen to the piano before
we go to California Adventure. Just as we got there, we noticed someone getting
ready to play. We recognized her as our friend, Peggy Dusquesnel. We have known her for
years and loved her playing. She asked what we wanted to hear, and she did
about twenty minutes of our favorites. What a special treat!
We stopped in California Adventure, but all the wait times
for the rides were especially long. The place was packed because of the Wine
& Food Festival. Since it was already after three o’clock, we decided to
head home.
The entire day was filled with Disney magic and charm.
