Banks for the memories (alternately: Oh Mickey, you're so fine)

One aspect of our stay in Los Angeles that gradually faded away over time was the various banks my parents got for me as souvenirs. I think only 12 banks in total were mentioned, with the last one being the one purchased in Chinatown in early December of 1967. I don't really know how many banks in total were obtained in Los Angeles or how many banks were added to my collection after we returned to Texas and the bank collection grew, but here are pictures of the ones I think were obtained in Los Angeles that were not mentioned in the letters. To avoid some repetition, all of these banks are, of course, pictured with the obligatory quarter for scale. First up is a bank bank, from California Federal Savings and Loan Association on Wilshire Blvd.

This is just a cardboard can with metal top and bottom. The partially obscured slogan on the front is: "The betterment of people is our billion-dollar business."

The other side of the bank has a caricature of an old prospector saying "Saving pennies makes dollars," and below that is the suggestion to "consult your telephone directory for our nearest office." ("Telephone directory" is another term for "phone book." Some of you may have to look that up.) Next is another bank bank, this time from Westdale Savings and Loan Association in Los Angeles. This one is all plastic and really is a piggy bank.

The next one is a ceramic bank made to look like the end of a loaf of bread, in both shape and color.

If there was any doubt as to what it is supposed to be, the word "BREAD" is painted on the top. I have no idea where this bank came from. Next is a ceramic bank with the words "LI'L DEVIL BANK" painted on the front. Again, I have no idea where this one came from. I was such a well-behaved child I really have no idea why that bank is even part of the collection.

Next is a very colorful ceramic Indian child. I don't know where this one came from, but Knott's Berry Farm would be a reasonable guess.

Next is a Jungle Book bank featuring Shere Khan and Mowgli.

The front of this one has a sticker indicating it came from Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, so I probably got this bank when Mom and I saw the movie there with Suzie Dirr in November of 1967, shortly after it was released. Next is a souvenir that is not a bank, but it's about the same size. It's a small beer stein. There is no indication of where it is from but my guess would be Busch Gardens.

Another non-bank souvenir is this little brown jug of Calico Corn, which is probably from Calico Ghost Town. I don't think there was any Calico corn in the jug when it was purchased.

Next up is one of the most interesting banks in the collection, mainly because it requires batteries and something really cool happens when you give it money.

As you can see, it's a haunted house. The sides are thin sheet metal and the rest of the house is plastic. (Notice the nice detail of overlapping shingles on the roof.) I don't know for certain if we got this one in Los Angeles, but if we did I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in any of the letters. Here's how it works. You can see in this picture that the front doors are partially open. Normally those doors are fully closed. You can also see two small circles on the front porch. Those circles are actually electrical contacts, and when you put a penny on the front porch, the penny completes a circuit which causes a ghost-like figure to come forward from within the house, pushing the front doors open. The base this figure is on moves over the penny and when it withdraws back into the house it takes the penny with it and the doors close. You can't see it in this picture, but there is also a light over the front doors that blinks while the ghost-like figure is outside. I haven't had batteries in it in several years, and it has suffered in the past from battery leakage, but I'll see if I can get it working before Halloween this year. Last but not least is the most special bank of them all. This one was mentioned in the letters and at the time I said it deserved its own blog post. But naturally I never got around to doing that so I'll include the story about this bank here. This is the Mickey Mouse bank I got at Disneyland on September 9, 1967. You may have noticed him in the background of some of the pictures taken around Christmas 1967, but here are pictures of the front and back of the bank all by itself. You may have to look closely to find the obligatory quarter for scale.

Yes, with a height of slightly under 19 inches, Mickey Mouse is the tallest bank in the collection. Mickey himself is about 16 inches tall and he's standing on a treasure chest about 3 inches tall.

The paint has gotten scratched up over the years, but other than a slightly pushed in nose it's in good shape.

In this picture of the bottom of the bank you can see that it was made by Transogram (maker of Tiddledy Winks) and cost $2.25 plus tax in 1967. You can also see where it says "Cut To Open," which we did. More on that in a bit. This bank is made from a thick, rigid plastic and it is completely hollow inside, which means it can hold a lot of coins. How many? Let's find out. At some point during our stay in Los Angeles or shortly after we returned to Texas, I started putting pennies in the Mickey Mouse bank. I assume these pennies just came from Mom and Dad's spare change. Since you had to cut open the bottom of the bank to get the money out, the money stayed in there. Fast forward a couple of years to when I was seven years old and in the second grade, and Mom and Dad were given a sales pitch for World Book encyclopedias. You may recall that I was quite the curious five-year-old when we were in L. A., so much so that Mom decided to purchase a geography book to help her answer the questions I came up with after I was given a globe. I assume my curiosity did not fade much over the next two years, and I know my grades in school were good, so Mom and Dad probably felt like a set of encyclopedias was a worthwhile investment that would allow me to look up the answers to all my questions my darn self. I don't know for sure what discussions took place, if any, but it was decided that the money in the Mickey Mouse bank would be used for the down payment on the set of World Book encyclopedias, and my savings rate went into high gear. I'm sure I was more than happy to donate those funds to get a set of encyclopedias since I didn't have much of a concept of money at the time anyway. I assume I knew what an encyclopedia was because my maternal grandmother in Denton had a set. [Fun fact: A few years later, my paternal grandmother started selling World Book encyclopedias.] At some point, many months after the original sales pitch for the encyclopedias, Mickey's bottom was cut open (ewwwww), and for the next several days or weeks, Mom and I spent a lot of time at the kitchen table counting pennies and rolling them into 50-cent paper rolls. I think the grand total when we got finished was around $27. Well, we got the encyclopedias, and the sales rep thought the story of how I saved up the money for the down payment would make a good story for the World Book company newsletter. So about a week after the encyclopedias were delivered, the sales rep came by the house with a photographer to take pictures for the story. And here is the clipping with that story from the World Book company newsletter.

The caption of that picture in the article is:

Third-grader David Jennings holds the Mickey Mouse bank which held most of the $30 in pennies he saved for a down payment on World Book. Representative Elisa Turner of the Dallas (Tex.) Branch made the demonstration to David's parents. Here's the text of the article: ===== He's banking on WB Our dime bank is a handy way to compare how little you pay to how much you get with World Book. Eight-year-old David Jennings' Mickey Mouse bank demonstrates how much you get when you want it hard enough. Mickey Mouse, you see, held most of the pennies that David had collected toward making a $30 down payment for World Book. The little boy from Dallas, Tex., had set his heart and his sights on the set when representative Elisa Turner first showed it to his family about a year ago. Writes Branch Vice-President and General Manager John Scott, "At that time, David was very excited about the books and started saving for the down payment. Delivery was made last week, and David was both proud and happy." Now the shelves in David's room have the 20 volumes of World Book as well as 40 of the banks he had collected and filled with pennies. "A penny saved is a penny earned," goes the saying. David would probably add that a penny invested in World Book is better than "money in the bank!" ===== On the shelves behind me you can see the set of World Books plus some of the banks I had at the time. Here is another picture taken from a slightly different angle that shows even more banks on the the shelves above the encyclopedias. You should definitely recognize some of those banks.

A few items to note in the standalone picture: It has a lot of pinholes because I had it pinned to a bulletin board in my room until I went to college. The two-volume World Book dictionary has switched sides from where it was in the picture used in the article. Apparently some rearranging occurred between takes. In the standalone picture that is not my hair behind my left ear, it's something on the wall behind me. That always bugged me because I didn't want people to think I was a long-haired hippie. Behind Ms. Turner's head, on the far left side of the picture, you can see the small black and white television set (with AM radio) I had in my room the whole time I was growing up. I don't recall ever watching TV on that set at night for some reason. (Maybe because we had a big color TV in the living room.) But I do remember frequently watching The Real McCoys or The Three Stooges before getting up to go to school in my younger years, on KTVT channel 11 when it was still an independent station. [Fun Fact: The "TVT" in KTVT stood for "TeleVision for Texans."] I also listened to a lot of Texas Ranger baseball games on that radio at night. Also behind Ms. Turner you can see part of the head and the rear end of the large bull bank that is no more. In both pictures you can see Ms. Turner is holding something. That is a very small bank. It's the dime bank referred to in the article, which is a plastic replica of one volume of a World Book encyclopedia. I still have that bank somewhere but unfortunately I can't find it at the moment. So the bank collection is more than just a collection of banks to me. It is a connection to not only the time we lived in Los Angeles but also to that set of World Book encyclopedias. And that set of encyclopedias certainly helped shape who I am today, since it was not only a tremendous help in completing assignments for school, it also allowed me to research almost anything as much as a wanted to. I would frequently read an article about something I was curious about, and then at the end of that article there would be a list of suggested articles related to that subject, which I would then investigate one by one, with those articles often leading to other articles, and so on. I would leave each book open on the floor to whatever I was reading last, such that it wasn't unusual to have ten or more volumes spread out all over the floor of my room. I'm sure many people who grew up with a set of encyclopedias in their home can relate to that. It could be compared to today's methods of doing research on the internet, with the "See also" in World Book articles being replaced by hyperlinks on web pages that take you to other pages, and the books spread out all over the floor being replaced by multiple browser tabs open. Eight-year-old me definitely would have been fascinated with the internet.

While writing all this I just realized that the Mickey Mouse bank is my Rosebud. Wow. Mind blown. Next up: Final thoughts

December 4, 1967: Tram hams

Letter postmarked December 5, 1967 (Part 1):

The CCZCC now stands at 7. It is with cautious optimism that I remind you the previous record was 11.

Dear Mother and Mike,

Well, how are things in sunny Denton? Have you been too busy to notice? L. A. is still the same - crowded, smoggy and lonely.

We surely had a good weekend. Friday, I went shopping with Barbara Hansen while Suzie kept David Wayne. I finally got Wayne something and had the store mail it, and I did the same thing on a birthday present for Mrs. Jennings. I bought a wrap-around, after-shower outfit for Dave also. That night (since I had spent the grocery money) we ate out. We went to Olvera Street with Suzie and Gene and ate Mexican food. After eating, we went to Chinatown. We finally found a bank for David Wayne and we also bought matching red kimonos for each of us. Both Davids looked real good in theirs, but can you imagine a pregnant woman in a kimono?

[I don't know for certain since there are no identifying markings or labels to identify it, but this bank (with the obligatory quarter for scale) is most likely the one I got at Chinatown. It is glazed ceramic, and other than the missing stopper in the bottom it is in very good shape except for a few minor chips (like the one you can see in the picture on the bottom of the bag he's holding.)]

Saturday was a big day - we went on the tour of Universal City Studios. It was just great and I wish I had taken you when you visited us. You'll get to see plenty of it though, as we took three rolls of Polaroid film and two color rolls of film in the little Brownie camera.

[Yes, there are a lot of pictures from Universal City Studios in the photo album. Not as many as you would think given how many rolls of film they took, but certainly more than most places except maybe Knott's Berry Farm.]

First, we started off on a tram around the lot. We went through a sound stage and they picked five people from our tour and they made a scene - one of the persons picked was Gene Dirr! This made the whole trip worthwhile as he really "hammed" it up.

Next we got back on the tram (after walking through Lana Turner's dressing room) and drove around and saw several of the houses used in movies, props (such as break-away furniture and bottles), other dressing rooms used by stars, and really I can't remember what all, but it was every bit interesting.

Then we had a rest stop - but no one rested as there was too much to see and do. We took a picture of David Wayne holding Woody Woodpecker's hand. David Wayne and Suzie had a rock (or boulder) fight with great big foam rubber props. Gene got the action on his movie camera and I took a still picture of David Wayne lifting a big rock over his head.

[Here's the picture of me and Woody.]

[And here is the picture of me holding the big foam rock over my head.]

I also got pictures of David Wayne in Laredo jail, a monkey cage, . . .

[The picture of me in the Laredo jail is blurry, but the one of me in the monkey cage came out pretty good. Yes, that sign on the bottom says "Do Not Feed Monkeys."]

. . . and in an elevator from "Thoroughly Modern Millie" which was the show we saw last week. In the show, Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore did a dance in the elevator so Gene took moving pictures of Suzie and David Wayne dancing. What were the other people doing? Watching us, naturally. We had three cameras - Gene's movie, me on the Polaroid, Dave with the Brownie - snapping our two hams, David Wayne and Suzie. They both performed so well, I expected people to clap or throw pennies at them.

[There isn't a picture of me in the elevator from "Thoroughly Modern Millie" from this trip to Universal City Studios, but I can tell you there is one from another trip because I'm wearing a different jacket. I know you're just dying to see another picture of me, but you'll have to wait until we go back. Sorry that's the rules.]

Suzie and David Wayne got in this old car that bounced around and in the background was moving scenery. It looked very real and, of course, Gene captured the whole thing with his camera but all I got was a big blur. There was a stagecoach with moving scenery, but the few people that weren't watching "our show" were riding on it.

[Although I couldn't ride in it, Mom did get a picture of me in front of the stagecoach she was talking about. It was an armored stagecoach used in the film "The War Wagon" starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas, which had just been released in May of that year.]

After the rest (Ha, I was so tired I was glad to sit) we got back on the tram and we rode around the outside locations - western towns, Mexican villages, lakes, foreign scenes, the "Psycho" house (remember that scary movie?), and a waterfall where they just pushed a button to make it a tall one or a little one - amazing! We recognized several sets that we had seen in movies.

[Alas, the picture of the house from "Psycho" isn't very good. Too far away and not from a good angle.]

I guess the last part of the tour was the best and it was getting too dark for us to take many pictures. We saw a make-up demonstration, a stunt man show - where they fought, fell off buildings, hit each other with bottles, etc. You can just imagine how little sadistic David Wayne enjoyed all that violence! We saw how they make fake snow and rain for the movies. We went in the "McHales's Navy" set and best of all, the "Munsters" set.

[Here's me and Mom on the outdoor set of McHale's Navy, which ran from 1962 to 1966. Mom doesn't look very pregnant there, even zoomed in, although you can tell she's wearing a loose-fitting top. On the left side of the picture you may be able to see fake rain coming off the roof.]

[And here is the entrance to the set of "The Munsters," which ran from 1964 to 1966. (It's not the full house that is shown in the opening credits, but they probably used this for the front porch scenes, like in the opening credits where Herman Munster busts through the front door before the other cast members walk through.)]

[Little did I know that just beyond those doors would occur perhaps the most memorable moment from my early childhood. But that will have to wait for Part 2 of this letter.]

November 24, 1967: Observations

Letter postmarked November 30, 1967 (Part 2):

This is Part 2 of the letter postmarked November 30, covering Friday, November 24, 1967.

Friday we took David Wayne across the Golden Gate Bridge. He immediately said it was a giant dinosaur, with its feet tied to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. All day we just drove around the coast, stopping at places that looked interesting (Muir Woods for one). That night we ate at Fisherman's Wharf and I got my first lobster. I loved it and David Wayne ate his scallops until I thought he would bust. Then we walked around the wharf, watching them boil oysters and crabs in big pots on the sidewalk. All of us enjoyed the day.

[I'm glad the trip to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco turned out better than the trip to Fisherman's Wharf in Los Angeles.]

[Muir Woods National Monument, a little north of San Francisco, is a redwood forest, with most trees there between 500 and 800 years old per Wikipedia. Mom doesn't mention it here, but I did get a bank from Muir Woods. Here are some pictures with the obligatory quarter for scale and some bonus dust.]

[This bank is made out of wood. I doubt it's made out of redwood, but I'm no expert on species of wood. There are small labels on the top and the front that say "Muir Woods Calif." A small deer is glued to the top of it, with eyes that are not unlike the eyes often seen on depictions of aliens. The large label on the front that looks like a scroll has this clever poem:]

I'm just a little deer But I'll someday cure your woe If in this slot upon the top You'll drop some of your "doe"

[I think I got another bank during this trip to San Francisco, which I no longer have. This one, which was from Fisherman's Wharf, wasn't really a bank per se but it was a large shell (perhaps a real one) with a colorful ceramic fish glued to the front. I think I eventually threw that one away after too many pieces broke off of it.]

[The photo album contains two pictures of me from our drive along the coast. (And one picture of a gopher we watched dig a hole.) The gopher head is very difficult see in his picture, so I won't bore you with that one even though my shoes are in the picture. But I will bore you with both pictures of me since there is some military history to be learned.]

[Mom's caption on the first picture is "These holes looked like some kind of defense around coast." You can see that I'm standing on some sort of concrete structure, and to my left there is a square metal frame around a large hole. It looks like the metal frame likely supported a door at some point. You will also note that I'm wearing my mouse shoes (huaraches) as well as a shirt and a pair of pants that fit.]

[Mom's caption on the second picture is "Taken on top of cliff at San Francisco." In this picture I appear to be standing on a large pile of dirt or a large boulder. The expression on my face, combined with my body language, indicates I was concerned about my ability to safety get down from my current position and I was in the process of stating my case to my parents that I needed some assistance. Either that, or I didn't want to get my new clothes dirty, which seems unlikely for a five-year-old boy.]

[In the second photo, if you look to my left, over the boulder, you can see three concrete structures that have curved tops.]

[I believe I was standing on top of one of those (or one just like them) in the previous photo. I did a little googling, starting with a phrase that was something like "California coastline defense," and determined that these are observation bunkers built during World War II so military personnel could be on the lookout for attacks coming from the Pacific Ocean. Here is the link to a 2009 article from The San Diego Union-Tribune about some of these bunkers along the coast, very close to the US border with Mexico: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-border-bunker-battle-2009aug25-htmlstory.html. I also found a closeup photo of one of these bunkers at Muir Beach (near San Francisco) at this link: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/california-san-francisco-muir-beach-u-s-high-res-stock-photography/145094775. So we learned two things here: Mom's caption on the first photo was correct, and the premise of the movie "1941" had some basis in reality.]

[That's a wrap on day two of our Thanksgiving trip to San Francisco. I wonder what kind of adventures we'll have on Saturday?]

October 30, 1967: Dirty hippie turtle

Letter postmarked (and dated) October 30, 1967:

The CCZCC takes the first step toward a potential new record. It now stands at 1.

Unlike all the previous letters, which were written in ink on letter-sized paper (8.5" x 11"), this letter was written in pencil on some 8.5" x 5.5" stationary.

Dear Mother and Mike,

I got tired of writing in pen so that's why this is in pencil. I really don't have much to tell you today.

[Pen vs. pencil mystery is solved. We still don't know why there was a sudden change in paper size, though.]

We stayed at home Saturday much to my disgust. I guess Dave was just tired. Also, it could have been that we didn't have much money. Since I've been doing the Christmas shopping, Dave's been giving me extra money.

[Let's hope this potential money issue doesn't impact MY Christmas too much.]

Sunday I talked Dave into taking me to Fisherman's Wharf - believe me we should have stayed at home. It was dirty, it stunk like dead fish, and there were only low, low class of people there. We didn't tarry there long. We did take a boat ride out in the ocean which was nice.

[I'm on a boat! I'm on a boat!]

[I don't look too thrilled about it, though. I don't know if I'm getting seasick or giving Dad a death stare for some reason.]

We also went in one store and bought David Wayne a starfish and a turtle bank.

[I had that starfish for many many years in my room. It was yellowish-brown, with about a six inch wingspan. I don't think I have it now, and I'm not sure if it even survived the Great Purge when I moved out of the house to go to college. But I do still have the turtle bank. Here are two pictures of it, both with the obligatory quarter for scale. This one is glazed ceramic, with no chips or cracks that I can find. There is nothing identifying it as coming from Fisherman's Wharf, but there is a bit of adhesive on one side that looks like a sticker or label may have been there at one time.]

[That second photo is not from the top. Mr. Turtle is actually doing a three-point stand while balancing a quarter on his head. Impressive, eh?]

We saw two hippie couples on motorcycles cut in front of this man and get a parking place he was trying for. Naturally, it made the man mad and he said something to them. They walked over to their vehicles, took the tire chains off and started following the man and his family (including four little kids). I don't know what the outcome was, but I hope the people got away. It just made me and Dave sick and we got out of there quickly!

[That is another story Mom often told about our time in Los Angeles, and that's pretty much how she told it, too. Mom and Dad were really scared when they saw that. Thankfully I don't have any memory of it.]

The Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco is a delightful place and I never dreamed that this one would not be just as good. Oh, I wish we were home - safe and far away from all these kooks!

[Culture shock has not worn off yet. I don't know how Mom knew about Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco since she hasn't mentioned it in any letters so far. There are some pictures in the photo album that specifically say they were from Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, so maybe that will be mentioned in an upcoming letter.]

Halloween is tomorrow night and David Wayne is beside himself with excitement. I'm only going to take him trick or treating at a few apartments in this building. (I even asked these people if it would be alright.) Then we are going to the Hansen's (people Dave works with) and the Sivell's. I hope it won't be a let-down to him, but I just don't feel safe going to strange doors in this town.

[Well that stinks. Don't be such a worry wart, Mom. I neeeeeeed candy!]

It wouldn't be any better in Carrollton though. Patsy wrote me that people there had been warned to keep the kiddies home because some people were giving candy with LSD on it to kids. David Wayne cried when I told him Roger and Steve couldn't go out on Halloween. I had to promise him that next year if it happened, we would just have a party for the neighbors.

[Oh, good grief. It's amazing the scare stories about tainted Halloween candy that go around almost every year. When I was growing up it was razor blades in apples. I read an article years ago about a group that actually searched newspaper articles over many decades for stories about Halloween candy that was intentionally modified to harm children, and they pretty much came up empty. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."]

We got that big turtle Friday night. We (David Wayne, that is) named him Mickey Mud Turtle. I went to Farmer's Market on Friday and at a pet shop I bought a big fish bowl to keep the turtle in. Snappy stays out of his shell all the time and he loves for us to talk to him. This new turtle isn't very friendly yet - in fact he spits at us if we get close to him. I'm not too fond of it, but the boys love it. From the reptile book you bought we found out it is a slider.

[Well heck yeah, who wouldn't like to have a big spitting turtle to play with?]

I bought Tracey a cute little Indian dress at Farmer's Market. All the shopping I need to do now is Wayne, Judy, and the Jennings. I got a beautiful glass piano for Aunt Osie and a set of glass swans for Aunt Mary. I wish I could go ahead and get all these things mailed.

[Aunt Osie and Aunt Mary were Dad's aunts.]

Dave is on a diet and has lost some weight - not enough, he still looks pregnant. I still haven't felt the baby moving and the doctor says I should - that has me worried. Other than that, I feel great.

Well, I said news was short and it is. Write soon.

Love,

Linda

P. S. - I bought David Wayne a Batmobile that shoots rockets. It is the same size as the matchbox cars and I imagine it will be a big hit on Christmas!

[A Batmobile that shoots rockets? This is going to be the best Christmas ever!]

September 18, 1967: Blah again

Diary entry for September 18, 1967:

I felt bad today. David Wayne and I went to grocery store. Wrote letters.

Since there's not much to talk about once again, we'll take another trip in the Wayback Time Machine. Today we'll revisit the August 27, 1967 diary entry, where the bank collection grows by not one but two additional banks. Here is a picture of the Buddha bank (purchased at Japanese Deer Park) holding the obligatory quarter between his toes.

You can't really tell due to how out of focus that picture is, but this one is ceramic with a rough finish instead of smooth like most of the others. In the bottom right of the photo you can see just a bit of a sticker that's coming off. That sticker says "HOTEI Brings You Luck." Hotei (aka Budai or Pu-Tai) is often mistaken for Guatama Buddha (the real Buddha on whose teachings Buddhism was founded). So it is often called the Fat Buddha in the west.

The other bank purchased that day was this covered wagon from Knott's Berry Farm.

This one is smooth ceramic with some really nice detail. Whoever painted the words on this one certainly could have taken lessons from the person who painted "Marineland" on the whale bank.

September 17, 1967: Blah day

Diary entry for September 17, 1967:

We stayed home all day. Nobody felt very good.

It sounds like that Mexican food didn't sit well with any of us.

Since there's not much to talk about with regard to today's diary entry, let's jump in the Wayback Time Machine and see where it takes us. Today we'll go back to the letter postmarked August 23, 1967. In addition to the details about our trip to Marineland, this letter contains the first mention of the bank collection. The second bank that was purchased was a whale from Marineland, shown in the photo below holding the obligatory quarter in its mouth and looking very happy.

This bank is smooth glazed ceramic and is in good shape, although I think the clear coat has started to wear off the tail because the ends of both flukes feel rougher than the rest of the whale. It feels like the word "Marineland" was painted over the clear coat, but surprisingly it has not worn off.

September 9, 1967: I'm going to Disneyland!

Diary entry for September 9, 1967:

Went to Disneyland today. Everything was wonderful. We especially enjoyed Tomorrowland section. David Wayne did an Indian dance in a show at Indian Village. Bought Mickey Mouse bank and some things for Tracey. Stayed ten hours but had a wonderful day. Had a midnight snack when we got home.

It sounds like we had a really good time at Disneyland, especially if we were there ten hours and didn't get home until almost midnight. I suppose this was good training for my parents because years later we would go to Six Flags over Texas at least once every summer and stay all day, sometimes until the park was closing.

The Tomorrowland we visited was not the original Tomorrowland that had been there since Disneyland opened in 1955. According to Wikipedia, this Tomorrowland had just opened in the summer of 1967 and the theme was "World on the Move."

I don't think I ever heard about my participation in this Indian dance show. Too bad there aren't any pictures of it in the photo album because I would definitely publish them.

Hey, I thought Mom already bought a birthday present for my cousin Tracey. I guess you can't pass up a chance to spread some Disney cheer.

I don't have any specific memories of going to Disneyland, but let's take a look at some items and pictures.

First up is a small (4" x 3") booklet that I believe my grandmother saved as a souvenir. It's about 20 pages and is sort of like mini postcards, with each flip of the page showing a picture of a Disneyland attraction on the right hand side and a description of that attraction on the left side. Here are pictures of the front cover and the Monorail pages.

The next four pictures are the Dwarf Series. The captions for each photo are my mother's captions from the photo album. Try not to be distracted by my belly sticking out from under my shirt in a few of these pictures.

One of seven dwarfs at Disneyland

I'm not entirely sure which dwarf this is. My best guess is Sneezy.

David Wayne with Happy, one of Snow White's dwarfs

David Wayne with Doc

Snow White and Seven Dwarfs figures at Disneyland

Unfortunately I only see six dwarf figures in this picture.
[Edit: Thanks to someone who said Bashful is hiding, I now see seven dwarf figures. Bashful is hiding behind a post to my right.]


Next up is Mom and I standing in front of the Matterhorn ride, followed by a closeup of me and Mom.

The Matterhorn Mountain at Disneyland. A very bumpy bobsled ride toured the inside.

Next is me in front of a ride in Storybook land.

This whale is the entrance to a ride through Storybook land. Boat sails right through mouth of whale.

Of course, a trip to Disneyland wouldn't be complete without visiting (and hearing) "It's a Small World." Here is a picture of me and my grandmother standing in front of it.

Mother and David Wayne at Disneyland in front of "It's a Small World" ride.

Once again, Nana is dressed like she could be going to church. Also note the animal-shaped hedges in the background.

Here's a wide shot of "It's a Small World." That thing was huge.

Ride at Disneyland - go inside in a boat and animated dolls from all countries sing "It's a Small World."

Lest you think corporate sponsorship is a new thing, here is a closeup of that long sign in front of "It's a Small World."

"it's a small world" Presented by Bank of America

That's almost all of the Disneyland photos that include me. The rest are photos of different areas at Disneyland, none particularly noteworthy. Too bad there aren't more of Mom and Nana, and none of Dad.

The Mickey Mouse bank purchased today brings the bank total to 9. I do still have the bank, but there is so much to write about that particular one that it deserves its own post. I'll probably save that for a future slow news day.

Ok, the first day of the weekend was a long one but a good one. Will we be able to top that on Sunday?