Time Machine Travelogue Four

Graduation Trip

Sorry for the delay in take off. We have had problems with the time machine this week.  I know you think it is the flux capacitor but it wasn't.  It was an overload in the retro chronometer.  Too many trips so soon. If you have read my other blogs on Disneyland you know I'm going there soon. So I thought I'd throw you a curve ball.  When I was a kid the baseball all-star game was aired during the day. My Mom would make it a big event. She made hot dogs and potato salad. We had peanuts in the shell and everything that you would have at a game at that time. It was finished off by ice cream malt cups and, of course, Cracker Jacks.  


Then in 1967, the all-star game was to be held in Anaheim.  I had just graduated high school. So I asked if could take my brother and go. We applied for tickets and got two on the third base side at the Big A in Anaheim. Since we were going to that part of California, we decided to make Disneyland part of the trip. So as it turned out Disneyland was opening the new Tomorrowland.  

We had room reservations at Stovall's Cosmic Inn.  It had a nice pool and it was stocked with local girls. The motel allowed some local girls to use the pool. This made it fun. I actually took one of the girls out to pizza on one evening. 

Made me feel so much like a man of the world. My brother and I were looking forward to one of the attractions that we remembered from the previous year, the Flying Saucers.  We loved to bump into each other and gang up on some other kid. It was better than bumper cars. It was so Space age the saucer hovered on a cushion of air. You controlled them leaning in the direction you wanted to go.  We got to Disneyland and they were gone. The week before they unveiled a whole new Tomorrowland.  

There were new attractions. It was like they built a whole new Disneyland just for me.  This newness of the changes of Disneyland at this time propelled me for all my future visits to the Magic Kingdom.  Gone was the Universal World Clock and now your eye was drawn to the People Mover and the elevated Rocket Jets. We are two teenagers approaching Heaven. We went on the Circle Vision 360.  We watched America the Beautiful. This you did standing up and the effect of flying or falling. When we got out there was a new phone booth called a Chatter Box. You entered and placed a phone call.  We called our Mom. You just sat in the booth and talked. It was so modern for the time.

When we were on that phone call, we told our Mom to look for us in the crowd.  We would be wearing the hats we just bought, bowlers. They looked so cool and Odd Job in the movie Goldfinger made them famous. We enjoyed all the new attractions that were now open.  In Tomorrowland, there was the Carousel of Progress, People Mover, and the Rocket Jets. The Carousel of Progress was a use of audio animatronics figures telling and showing the changes that have happened in the American family home from the beginning of the Twentieth to the future date of 1994.   There was a Christmas scene to represent to 1960's.  The 1994 scene had HDTV, virtual reality, and voice activated appliances.  General Electric thought that, " There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.”


The People Mover was groovy. It took you around Tomorrowland.   It went by a view of a futuristic city and took you by a coming attraction, Adventure Thru Inner Space.  This only meant that I would need to come back.  That is the genius of the Walt Disney quote: "Disneyland will never be completed.  It will continue to grow as long 

as there is imagination left in the world."—Walt Disney

This is one of the reasons I wanted to come to Disneyland because in the previous year's visit we didn't see the new attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean.  So now was our chance to ride this. This was a great experience.  It was, as of then, not based on a Disney movie.  It was semi thrilling with the waterfall drops.  The storyline was interesting and matched the scenery and the conventional impression we have of pirates.  The major difference between the attraction back then and today is the fire blazing away burning of Puerto Dorado was projected on cellophane.  This not only made the dancing flames but also added an element of the snap and crackle of a fire.  This is missing today.

Play Ball!  That was the reason to come to Anaheim.  My brother and I wanted to go to the Major League Baseball's All Star Game.  It was the 38th annual All Star game.  I loved baseball.  I really only rooted for the LA Dodgers even though I now lived in Northern California.  I had not been to a baseball game since the Dodgers played at the Coliseum when I was in Little League.  It was probably the best All Star ever played.  Thirteen National League players from that team are in the Hall of Fame.  Players like Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, Willie Mayes, Ernie Banks, and Pete Rose.  Pitching greats Bob Gibson Don Drysdale, and Tom Seaver.  Seven American League players are in the Hall of Fame.  All the runs were scored by homeruns.  Standouts were Mickey Mantle, Al Kaline, Harman Killebrew, and Rod Carew.  There was a record number of strikeouts, a combined 30.  It went into the 15th inning when Tony Perez hit a solo homerun off of the Kansas City Athletics’ Jim "Catfish" Hunter, who was pitching in his fifth inning of relief.  The next year Catfish would be pitching for the Oakland A's and I would have a Nothern California team to root for.  My brother and I sat on the third base side towards the left field foul pole on the second deck.  We don't know if we were ever seen on TV and Mom never mentioned seeing us but we had an excellent time.  I do remember seeing the people on the 1st deck stacking their beer cups together and trying to have it reach the second deck.  I was all in good fun.

Well the time machine needs a charge.  So we better return.  The Carousel of Progress never predicted the time machine.  There are a lot of events in the past that made a "Great Big Beautiful" yesterday.  So, check back and book your next journey with Time Machine Travelogue.