Florida: 1957

While they've had to change somewhat with the times and closed down several times, the skiers survive. They are still around!

Contrary to the first post on this pic, read the history of the park here. The park closed for a short time in 2003-04, but was reopened under new ownership.

Hard to realize what a big deal Cypress Gardens and these water ski shows used to be, now that Disney has put it and most of Florida's other old-time tourist attractions out of business. Dick Pope, who founded Cypress Gardens, was quite a promoter. He and later his son kept it going for a long time but it finally succumbed to Disney, I'm guessing in the 1980s though I'm not sure exactly when. Nobody wanted to see real flowers, real foliage, real plants, and real animals when they could go just a short ways up the road and see fakes at the Magic Kingdom.

I love how numbers 1-5 look politely nonchalant, number 6 looks like she's holding on for dear life, and number 7 is like, "HI, CAMERA!!!"

Brings back memories of going there when I was young.

That's my mother's generation ... just think, they're all in their seventies now... I was born a few days before this postcard was sent...

[It's not a postcard, it's a 35mm Kodachrome slide. - Dave]

As soon as I saw this I thought of the Go-Go's "Vacation" album cover.

[Me too! Belinda rocks. - Dave]