BOOMER by Tim Engel (smallest ebook reader txt) 📕

in that direction. Very cool. And the sides had rubber bumpers so it was like two rides in one. One for crusing around and the other for ‘bumper cars’.
The Swiss Family Robinson movie inspired the Swiss Family Treehouse. Pure ever-lovin’ fantasy! The movie was a delight. The Swiss Family is marooned on a deserted island and they decide the best place to build a home is where else? In a tree!! You could see bits of their wrecked ship in the tree house. Disney imagineers made it all very believable. You climbed through the levels and could see the hosuewares and furniture; the various fabrications that helped to make the tree ‘home’.
The Pirates of the Caribbean came along later. It was a master stroke. A ‘dark’ ride that went way beyond. Disney tunneled under the ground to make room for this one. And it had water falls, oceans, burning villages, artillery fire, pillaging pirates, and THAT them song. “Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me!” The Pirates ride was pure genius. Audio-animatronics at its’ finest. The pirates, good citizens of the village, dogs, cats, other various critters came to life right before our eyes. So life like. This was the 60’s and anything was possible. I imagined the Imagineers at Disney probably worked for NASA in their spare time! Truly fascinating the stuff they did. You could see the individual hairs on their arms and legs, the whiskers on their faces.
In the jail the pirates try to bribe the dog to give up the key by whistling to him. His cheeks puff and shrink as he does so. The ride is a little ship itself. You go through riding on a car that rides on rails for the most part. But when it swooshes down the two waterfalls, I believe it’s actually floating free like a raft. Fascinating engineering by Walt Disney.
The Enchancted Tiki Room is a good one as well. It starts out with flowers coming down out of the ceiling, then birds, then the tikis come to life. The ensuing music and song fest is truly entertaining…and then there is water and lights. The senses are all drawn into this amazing show.
The Matterhorn is basically a roller coaster ride within the mountain. Along the way you see the abominable snowman and go from dark to light and inside and outside the mountain and finally through a pond of water. Crashing nearly to a stop. The Matterhorn cars were called bobsleds…you felt that at any time you would go careening off into space. But, alas, this never happened. However, we were there one night and noticed that the ride had been shut down. Rumor had it that a boy had stood up while on the ride and that he struck his head. I do remember seeing a nurse and a stretcher. I hoped and prayed he survived.
The submarines were lots of fun. You climbed down into actual submarines which cruised around a lagoon. You got to see fish and other critters under the waves…some treasure, and also there were mermaids poised at various spots around the ride. Sitting on rocks and brushing their beautiful long hair. At one point while looking out the port hole next to your seat you saw lots of bubbles and then suddenly the voice over said “what, do you see what I see? Sound the alarm!!” And what showed up as the sub passed was a ‘seamonster’. It was kind of a goofy looking one – nothing scary by any means. After all this was 60s Disneyland. Scarier stuff would come later.
Autopia allowed kids to drive actual cars. They were cool little fiberglass examples. Like go-karts, only slower. But as a youngster it was terribly exciting to get to drive your ‘own’ car. The cars moved around on tracks that kept you within the lane. Also, you were governed to about 3 miles per hour. And if you dared to run into your fellow fun lover, there were large bumpers with big springs that had lots of travel. So the chance of hurting anyone including yourself was pretty much zero.
You cruised around through the ‘countryside’ complete with gas station, trees, grass. Disney were masters of ‘suspending unbelief’.
Fantasyland included lots of fun rides for kids. One of the most popular was Dumbo. This was basically an ‘octopus’ type ride that went around in circles. You climbed into your ‘Dumbo’ which was faithfully recreated by Disney Imagineers to look just like the cartoon. In the tip of Dumbo’s trunk was a tightly held feather – the thing that gave Dumbo the faith to fly! The magic continued within the ‘car’ where the rider could flip a lever up or down and make their Dumbo fly higher in the sky or swoop down lower to the ground. A lot of fun and very magical for kids! I always loved getting to fly my Dumbo. It felt like I was really flying and this truly Was Fantasyland!
Probably my favorite ride in Fantasyland, if not my favorite in Disneyland, was Peter Pan. “Hang on everybody, here we goooooooo!!” You climbed into a small pirate ship – again, faithfully painted up and animated. As the car rolled out you could see it was supported from above and as you ‘joined Peter’ in flight – the car was actually ‘flying’ and you could see the city, water, ships, Captain Hook and ‘The Lost Boys’ down below. The effect was terrific with the use of black lights and various scenes painted in black light paint. I knew I was on a ‘ride’ but as I flew around this glowing world down below with the wonderful Disney songs playing in the background I would suspend my disbelief and have a great time.


Mr Toad’s Wild ride was fun…it was just a typical ‘dark’ ride but really not so dark. There was lots of cool scenery and you went flying through doorways and lots of horns and alarms and police standing there trying to get you stopped.
Casey Jr’s Circus Train was fun. Some of the cars were made up like animal cages and you climbed inside and felt like a lion or tiger being locked up like a real circus train. One of the amazing things about Disneyland was their attention to detail.
From when you first come into the park, you see Mickey’s head made up of flowers. The manicure and attention to detail are amazing. The Main Street buildings are beautifully done and are to scale. I believe it’s 3/5’s scale. So immediately you feel like you’re in a small town. Perhaps like Mayberry RFD. There is a Genera Store, a magic shop, an ice cream shop, candy store, and a restaurant.
To0morrow land was always a lot of fun,. They had the rocket ride which was actually a lot like Dumbo – but you were riding in a cool looking jet. They also had a ride where you sat in a rocket which took off and went into space.. This was pretty realistic. There were screens down at the floor and up above. You could see where you were going and where you had been. Obviously they had taken some actual footage from a launch and used this for the video. Along with the video there was authentic sound effects as well as vibration in the seats. Great ride!
Frontierland was cool, too. You could buy yourself a Pendleton, ride the river boats, get some Mexican foot featured by Fritos, shop, paddle the canoes, go to Tom Sawyer’s Island, or shoot at the attacking Indians from the soldier fort.
Knott’s Berry Farm
Of course, Disneyland wasn’t the only amusement park in town. Just down the road was Knott’s Berry Farm. In some ways, I actually like KBF more than DL. Knott’s had lots of fun stuff. It had a donkey ride, the Calico Mine Ride, the log ride, haunted shack, ore shop, train, boot hill, the saloon, shoot outs with real bad guys robbing the train and shooting the place up.
I think my favorite was the Haunted Shack. The haunted shack was lots of fun. You went in and saw the miner pour water up hill. Shoot a pool ball on a table and watch it roll back toward him and go in the pocket. People went up and sat in a chair that was mounted on the wall and you could not get up. You literally had to be helped out of the chair. And people stood at weird angles. Had gravity gone haywire? Was this place haunted? Who knew?
Riding the train was fun. This was a real, old steam train that Walter Knott had purchased from Colorado. Part of what was so cool about this ride is that the train was boarded by train robbers who shot up the place and then came through the cars asking for valuables. The authentic dress and weaponry helped to make this bit of entertainment believable.
Dad loved all these places because there was always an element to them that struck right at his core. Dad was very interested in the American Indian culture. He came from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. There was an area in Knott’s called Indian Trails. They had authentic Native Americans with proper bonnets, beaded clothes and moccasins. Dad made bonnets that he sold to the Walt Disney Company for use in their TV shows and movies.
There was a ‘resident’ Indian at KBF who was good friends with Dad. Mom assures me that we exchanged Christmas cards with him for many years and with Mom’s memory I would never doubt her. I remember seeing post cards and pictures with him. We would also sometimes get our pictures taken at the photo saloon. You could line up at the bar or climb up on a ‘bucking’ horse. I think both are still available for pictures.
Flash forward about 15 years and we’re eating dinner at the four crowns restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway in Corona Del Mar. I can’t remember the reason – it may have been a party for Cousin Mary’s engagement…but I remember Aunt Evelyn asking me what I wanted to do. What were my aspirations? Well, I replied; I would like to be a writer. Oh, yes, she replied – well that’s wonderful. Of course you’ll have to have lots of experiences, travel, meet people and you will have plenty to write about. This now is approximately 30 years ago and I still remember that fondly.
In my life I’ve had my share of job interests and aspirations; college majors and the like. I have majored in Psychology, Philosophy, History, and Business Administration. So how did I end up in Aerospace? Blessed, is my answer. As a teenager I enjoyed ‘some’ success with writing. I wrote poetry which was included in a high school book of poetry. I wrote more poetry and songs. So I am now following