Of course, Disneyland's success encouraged many others to build or develop their attractions into theme parks, so the day also ought to be considered the birthday of the modern theme park industry as well.
So slice up some chocolate fudge cake and celebrate the theme park way -- by waiting in your favorite queue. ;-) Grocery stores or the local DMV will do if you can't get to a park, I suppose....
I'll celebrate by offering you the earliest photo I have of me at Disneyland:
That's me in the stroller, sucking down an ice cream, Mickey head balloon in hand.
And here I am a few years later, tricked out in my best Disneyland garb:
I'll leave y'all to guess the years in which these were taken. Please use the comments to share your earliest (Disneyland or not) theme park memory.
I will always be known by everyone who knows me as the Disney guy. Fuelled my love for coasters, for theming, & ultimately for tourism which is how I make my living.
Of course, I dream of a Tomorrowland that is no longer barren. Hopefully the return of the subs harkens that. Perhaps they will give the Astro Orbiter the height it once had, return the Peoplemover to moving something, & America Sings where we can learn folk music of America instead of bluetooth technology. (A guy can dream, thanks to Walt Disney). Don't get me wrong, I still love DL & still have much to experience there, no doubt, for the next 52 years or so.
Someday I’ll dig up my eigth grade end of year project which was a collection of art projects I’d done on DL. Mostly just tracing, but quite the obsession.
I even had a t-shirt made when I was a kid…with those velvet iron on letters. It said: Imagination is the only key to Disneyland.
The guy at the t-shirt shop really got into it, & crafted an old fashioned key out of the characters 8 & F.
That guy who made it remembered me years later, & we became friends. We even built a Haunted House in Monterey to benefit the boy scouts one year. Hows that for imagineering?
Never been to World
Never even been to DL for the holidays.
Joaquin & I have vowed to go this year since he’s from L.A. & had never been during the holidays either.
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