My Mom and I went to southern California when I was itty bitty to stay with her Aunt Helen and Uncle Johnny for several days. WE HAD A BLAST, as nearly every day we went some place exciting. Among our excursions was Marineland, POP (Pacific Ocean Park--an amusement park on the beach), and Knotts Berry Farm. In the evenings, we visited my cousins Connie, Bruce and Curt up the street at Aunt Joy and Uncle John's house. What fun they all were! I thought these two families lived like this all the time, visiting amusement parks and eating at House of Pancakes. I remember crying when we left. Wouldn't you?
The highlight of our trip was visiting The Most Wonderful Place on Earth: Disneyland. Walt's park was fairly new, still under construction, and brand-spanking clean. Talk about sensory overload! They used to say the best way to see Disneyland was over a several day period. It was almost too much to see in a day, as it could be exhausting. But for this five-year old, it was heaven.
For weeks afterwards I spoke of how I got to go to the moon that day in Anaheim. One of Walt's new rides in Tomorrow Land was a spaceship that promised to take you where you'd never been before. I believed it hook, line and sinker. Despite my Uncle Johnny's admonition that if I didn't behave I would "go to the moon" as was the popular saying of the day, I was thrilled to have taken a spaceship and seen video proof on the big screens inside the spaceship that I was indeed in outer space. I was there, I tell ya'! I was.
Here's a short video from the Disney people taken in 1957 of Disneyland. Miss you, Flying Saucers!