To commemorate and pay homage to the 55 Originals, those attractions that were part of Disneyland at its opening, were outfitted with special Golden vehicles. They added one special golden car to each of those rides. Riding in the special car took several times waiting in line for that ride. I don't know if that made it all the better when you hit that Cosmic random and got on the first time. The pins that represented those attractions were replicas of the cars, boat, and even elephant.
Before we got started on our 50th anniversary pin buying binge, I bought a new carrying case. The carrying cases that I already had weren't full but I wanted to have a proper home for the pins. At that time, my entire family had their own pin cases. I found a very attractive case with the icon Golden Mickey Ears and the theme for that year the Happiest Homecoming On Earth. This was also the name of the parade. The opening float in the parade featured Tinker Bell. Tinker Bell also had a place of honor because it was the return of her flight over Sleeping Beauty Castle summoning the start of the fireworks spectacular. There once was a flight taken from the Matterhorn passing by the castle. The first Tinker bell was a 71 year old circus aerialist name Tiny Kline. She started the tradition in 1961. The 50th anniversary fireworks display, Remember... Dreams Come True, was narrated by Julie Andrews and invited the audience to make a "Wish". Tinker Bell then flies from he Matterhorn to the new ending place at Big Thunder Mountain. 
Disneyland has changed over the years, but there are some attractions that have never gone away.
The golden pins that commemorated the vehicles on Main Street are our frist pins here. These were once "A Ticket" rides in the original system. Taking them for the short ride from the Main Street Town Square to the Hub. The Hub is the place where the entrances radiate into the other areas of the Magic Kingdom. In the early years, you often rode these modes of transportation just to use the "A Ticket". Now, I mostly ride them to save my feet. The Horse drawn Trolley is a link to Walt Disney's childhood in Marceline, Missouri.
The entire concept of Main Street is based on tying Walt Disney's past with the present.
A second Golden Vehicle on Main Street is the Motor Car. It is a fun ride and it gives you an idea of what early cars were like. It is hard to believe that today's power everything automobiles evolved form these simple machines. It is so cool to be walking down Main Street and hearing the "a-oo-ga" of the cars rubber bulb horn that the driver uses to clear the road. What would Disneyland be without the train. It is not only a ride but a conveyance to take you from place to place. Walt Disney loved trains. He had a model railway in his yard at home. The trains use was waning in the United States by he time Disneyland opened. I was lucky, my grandfather and for a while my dad worked for Santa Fe Railroad.
We got a concession to ride on the train. I had many real train trips seeing the countryside. To me, even though the train goes to other areas, the train belongs to Main Street. The entire boundary of the park was once contained inside the berm of the train tracks. It was magical walking under the tracks and entering the park. There are other Golden Vehicles in the other lands. We will focus the ones in Fantsyland in our next blog post. It had the most of the rides. So enjoy these pins and remember more are coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment