Deja vu all over again.
July 1, 2018.
Been away from the blog for a while for a variety of reasons. So in an attempt to kick start this old thing, I decided to take up the task again by blogging each day of this month.
I will cheat a bit, slipping in a few golden oldies, now and then, however.
Funny as it seems, I have been around the online world for more than some of the current denizens have been adding their marks to this amusing little spot in the universe. And much like the instrument of news and entertainment seen above. I am indeed an antique and somewhat proud of it. Bonus points if you can identify the item and its significance.
When it comes to the blog, I tend to shy away from political shenanigans as there are enough others covering those topics, comical as they may be.
So prepare for some good old fashioned infotainment. A little bit of everything from my way through the various orbits around the Solar System.
Hope you will enjoy reading these posts as much as I will enjoy sharing them with you.
A special thanks to Tim McKenny and he knows why.
Why, it’s baseball season, my boy!
San Jose’s Giants at home at Municipal Stadium, on Father’s Day in 2007.
And another baseball season is underway.
When it comes to the nation’s pastime, I count my self among the lucky. Fortunate in many ways. Grew up a fan one a storied franchise that moved west and became a fan of another underdog team that came west once and again, to take three world championships in back to back to back fashion, long before the term “three-peat” became the darling of sportscasters.
Along the way, I have enjoyed some wonderful experiences. In the late 60’s, I saw several games from the third deck, third base side at Candlestick Park as the fog rolled in; long before a marketing genius came up with the Croix de Candlestick. And in those years saw Hall of Fame players in their prime doing the San Francisco name proud. Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Perry and more. Games with my father and grandfather. And later, during a memorable summer of 1976, watched a game from the radio broadcast booth with Lon Simmons and Al Michaels doing the call and Rich Schmale as the engineer. Even though I now favor another team across the Bay, I still have memories of good times at AT&T Park as well.
But when the Athletics came to Oakland 50 years ago, there was something about this team that got my attention. Yes, there were the green and gold uniforms and all of Charlie Finley’s attempts to get folks into seats at the Coliseum. While I don’t recall my first game there, there have been plenty of memorable moments since. Such as taking in a game with my dad and his mother from box seats that the Western Pacific Railroad had given to my dad’s company as a good customer on the subsidiary railroad (Sacramento Northern) getting shipments of steel at their West Pittsburg plant. Or a set of three games on a homestead where I took in a full Friday, Saturday and Sunday of baseball. And then there was a memorable home game in 1973, last of the season, before another World Series championship.
Watched some great players here too, but the memory of winning the games that lead up to the streak of 20 in 2002, including watching the 20th win from the A’s corporate box. Ironic that I also was among the extras in that appeared in 2011’s “Moneyball”, sitting in a whole bunch of places during a night of shooting. I even have my big on-screen moment for all of 20 seconds, appearing next to Jonah Hill in one shot of the 20th win game.
My moment of on-screen fame, just to the right of Jonah Hill, with my wife Michele on my right.
I’ve sat all around the Oakland Coliseum. Diamond Level seats right behind home plate on a Easter Sunday night as the A’s played the Baltimore Orioles and Cal Ripken. The field seat boxes on both the first and third base sides of the field, the open box suites at the end of the suites in both right and left field, the bleachers before and after Mount Davis, and in both the Eastside and Westside Clubs. Many of those games thanks to a generous friend.
But over the years, I count myself fortunate to have enjoyed Major League Baseball in a variety of locations. Baltimore’s Camden Yard (with fantastic crab cake sandwiches), Seattle’s Safeco Field (complete with an Ichiro walk-off home run against the Yankees) and a few games at Edison Field in Anaheim.
Crab cakes and beer in Baltimore. Who knew?
But it doesn’t stop there. Out here in the west, we have the California League as the Class A teams of MLB franchises. Seen a few games at most of the Northern and Southern California fields, and have visited a few when there was no game being played. San Jose’s Giants win the culinary title with Turkey Mike’s BBQ. And when baseball came back to Sacramento as the Rivercats of the Pacific Coast League Class AAA teams of both the A’s and Giants, see a few games there, too!
Yes, I even played on a few teams in my younger years including one that could have been the team of Charles Schulz’s crew as we won one game all season long, on a walkout walk of all things. I was good at pulling the ball for long hits but never amounted to much overall. But I did go pro in a sense, with the 2006 season. I was actually employed by Major League Baseball, doing tech support for the early days of their MLB.com products.
You can see why it’s more than just a game to me. Plenty of good times with family and friends to recall.
Sure, give me a cold beer and a hotdog (or more of those crab cake sandwiches from Baltimore) at the ball park any day or night and I’m all set.
This guy knows what he’s talking about!
“Play ball!”
Nostalgia Redux
Meanwhile… back on Facebook, and no I am not dead, gone or absent. Just distracted.
A few folks lately have been on their horse about changes to Disney theme parks or suggesting that Disney bring back attractions from the past. As the British Prime Minister of fond of saying, “I refer the gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago”. Or just to say I won’t retread some past posts once more.
While I am not enamored with some things (She’s not my Redhead!), it appears that some folks will never understand why some attractions are gone forever, no matter how much the faithful hue ad cry for their return.
A case in point seen above – I made many a voyage down the Rivers of America aboard both the Bertha Mae and the Gullywhumper. And I was sad to see them sail off into the proverbial sunset in Anaheim. In today’s world of equal and safe access for all theme park guests, Federal regulations (specifically the Americans with Disabilities Act) would render a new Keel Boat impractical. To safely and securely load guests with special needs would have passenger loading numbers too low in the modern world of theme park operations. Just the design of a new keel boat would have so many restrictions (seat belts, life preservers and flotation devices, stairway size, hand rails, non slip surfaces, etc., etc.) that the final product would never see production. Practical it would not be.
Yes, I think a new water craft, say something smaller than the Mark Twain or Columbia, but larger than a Keel Boat, would make sense. It could be operated with less crew than some and with modern construction methods and materials perhaps require less maintenance. Even one of the small watercraft from Walt Disney World might do. And who knows? Maybe someone at the Company thinks along those same lines.
The same holds true with the much lamented PeopleMover. Bringing it back is no simple task. Especially the trackway. After Rocket Rods and the creation of stresses that the structure was never designed to withstand, the investment required to replace it is of such an amount that would never be approved. Disney’s sharp pencil folks in the fiscal side of the house of Mouse just won’t go there.
Not to mention that all of Tomorrowland is real estate with a future. Consider that much of the infrastructure is living past it’s prime. Some buildings go back to opening bay and others have just lived lucky, thanks to maintenance cycles. I see demolition and redevelopment all about the land once Star Wars: Galaxies Edge settles in for what Disney hopes is a long and productive life.
As Yoda remarked, “Always is motion is the future.”
Disney needs to make something new and exciting to keep customers coming. Especially new customers, as they really fund the day to day operations by coming for that once in a lifetime adventure. Often that comes after someone tells that mythical family of 3.2 kids and 2 adults from Peoria about their trip and all the new things they saw and did.
Terminal Nostalgia; look it up.
I may not always like the new, but I would rather go forward than backwards. Been there, done that and have the t-shirts.
It’s not the years. It’s the miles.
Someone once passed along those sage words of wisdom.
I tend to agree with the sentiment. For along the path that fate has put in my way, there have indeed been memorable miles. But time has had its way and crept into the equation as well.
A few weeks back, my high school class held its 40th reunion. It was great to see folks who had gone their own ways, on their own adventures since graduation in June of 1977. Looking back, things did not go anywhere near the plans I though were ahead for me. And while I do not regret that, I do see some moments that I would have rather went other than they did.
I am sure we all have those lurking about. Those “turn right or turn left” moments. Who can say what that path not taken might have offered us?
By no means is the adventure over. I hope to see a great deal more before I call it a day. But just the plans I once had changed, so will those future paths. And that is worth the wait.
Travel
By Edna St. Vincent Millay
The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn’t a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.
All night there isn’t a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.
My heart is warm with the friends I make,
And better friends I’ll not be knowing;
Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take,
No matter where it’s going.
The American West – How the Fantasy Lives on at Disneyland
An exclusive for the Friends of the Walt Disney Family Museum Facebook page – story and photos by Roger Colton
If you look back to the map of Disneyland as it opened in July of 1955, one can make the case that the largest portion of the Park was given over to Frontierland. “Tall tales and true” was a phrase used to tell the stories presented to guests here.
Given that the American population had been fascinated with the West since before gold was discovered in California, the decision to share a fantasized version of it at Disneyland was inevitable. With everything from pulp novels to radio, film, books and the latest fad of television, the call of the West was the siren song that so many people easily succumbed to.
Who as a child had not played Cowboys and Indians? And who did not know that the good guys wore white hats while the bad guys wore black? Disney had already seen television make good use of stories from the frontier with heroes such as Davy Crockett and Zorro. These were just the latest tales in the string that went back well over 100 years. With entertainment such as the Wild West shows of Buffalo Bill Cody and others, imaginations ran wild with adventures that could be in store.
Of course, the reality of life on the frontier was often very dull. A character in the 1972 film, “The Cowboys” remarked that “There ain’t no Sundays west of Omaha.” A family story from the 1890s in central Nevada was life on the back of a horse, working as a ranch hand. Wearing the same clothes day in and day out, regardless of weather. Work was monotonous and entertainments basic when they existed at all.
Yet the fantasy of it all lived on. And it still does today. Everything from rodeos to re-enactors to trail rides (such as seen in the 1991 film, “City Slickers”) to competitions for trail-drive cooking – let’s face it, there is something for everyone. Even many little girls who fall in love with horses start out with the fantasy, but end up learning the realities of it all.
A look back at Frontierland over the years gives an idea of some of the ways guests could enjoy their own Western amusements. There was the popular Indian Village where you could watch, and even join in, some traditional ceremonial dances. You could ride aboard a stagecoach, Connestoga wagon, the Rainbow Ridge Pack mules or a mine train into Natures Wonderland to take it all in. Or you could voyage down the Rivers of America aboard the Indian Canoes, the Mike Fink Keel Boats, the sternwheel steamboat “Mark Twain” or the proud sailing ship “Columbia”. With all of that taking up much of the western side of Disneyland, there was more than enough adventure waiting to be explored.
Times may have changed. While western stories may not be as popular as they once were, the tales of good versus evil still are popular. Many stories once set in the West, now have migrated to outer space. A good example is the Star Wars universe. The coming attractions as part of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge are set somewhere on the Outer Rim of that galaxy, a modern frontier if you will.
Getting ready to share new tales and experiences at Disneyland meant that construction along the Rivers of America and in the outer parts of Frontierland would have to be closed off from guests. 18 months have passed since those closures took place. But now Disneyland has returned a series of classic attractions back for guests to enjoy. Friday, July 28th, 2017 saw the proud sailing ship “Columbia”, the paddle-wheel steamboat “Mark Twain” and the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes all return to the Rivers of America.
Also returning along the shores of the Rivers is the DIsneyland Railroad. With plenty of new scenery along the Rivers of America and the railroads first left turn, the new route of the railroad offers plenty to see as the river was “plussed” with the addition of great surprises seen from the trains as well as from the boats on the water. It wouldn’t be fair to give away hints of what lies in store, but you can expect to see old favorites in new locations along the way, as well as some new items, too!
To kick off the return of the railroad, the creative chief for Disney, John Lasseter wanted to honor two Disney legends who helped inspire Walt through their own love of trains. Both Ollie Johnston and Ward Kimball owned and operated full size steam locomotives. Ollie’s “Marie E.” (named for his wife) came to Disneyland in 2005 for a few trips around the Park with Ollie at the throttle. Now owned by John and Nancy Lasseter at their Justi Creek Railroad (at the Lasseter Family Winery in Glen Ellen, CA), it was under steam, with John at the throttle, to lead a parade of trains over the newly constructed route. Ward and Betty Kimball’s “Chloe” once called their Grizzly Flats Railroad home. Now part of the Grizzly Flats collection at the Southern California Railroad Museum, “Chloe” and her summer coach number 7 were towed by the “Marie E.” Project Director Ken Mitchroney and Docent Beth Weilenman were aboard in homage to Ward and Betty for the festivities. This small train was first across the new rails, as a fitting honor to two gentlemen and ladies who did their part in inspiring Walt to have a train at the Disney theme park.
The Marie E. and the Chloe passing over the new trestle and rock work.
Following closely behind was the Disneyland Railroad’s own “C.K. Holliday” with it’s original freight train consist, full of Disney characters and cast members. Fireworks erupted as this 1955 original commemorated the past and launched the new era of steam train service at Disneyland.
Some other surprises await along the route of the Disneyland Railroad with some added touches to both the Grand Canyon Diorama and the Primeval World display. Nice touches to bring both a bit more into the current theme park world.
It’s fair to say that the West lives on at Disneyland. And with the future ahead for the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, it will continue for some time to come.
Roger Colton is a member of the Orange Empire Railway Museum, operating as the Southern California Railroad Museum, in Perris, California. For more information on the Museum, please visit http://www.oerm.org/