If any of you ever get to SF I highly recommend the Disney Family Museum in the Presidio. Walt was a real pack rat and he had the money to store stuff. From his WW1 ambulance driver's license to the architectural model of Disney World, it's all there. Walt loved technology and this museum mixes modern tech with wonderful items from the past. The museum isn't really for kids (though an older one might enjoy it), it's for "us": The Disney Generation, the ones who grew up Disneyland, the MM Club, and the Wonderful World of Color every Sunday evening.

I went to Disneyland when I was 9 or 10 with my family in '57 or '58. It seemed they were still building so many new rides, but as a young girl from Minneapolis, this was Heaven. Then we got to go to Knotts. Tomorrowland and the teacups were among my favs! Thanks again for the memories.

I grew up in Anaheim, went to Anaheim High School, and worked at Disneyland from 1965 to 1969. I love the old Disneyland photos! I notice, just above the TOMORROWLAND sign, you can see the cone shaped building that was Melodyland Theatre. I saw Liza Minnelli perform there in the late '60s.

The Mecca Motel

Because when I last visited the area as a 10-year-old in 1952, it didn't exist. So I knew nothing better than a full day at Knott's Berry Farm and its scary rides, gun totin' cowboys, pink or green cotton candy and their preserves. Yummy. I took five jars home to my family when I flew back across the country in a Constellation. I love the restaurant and airline jams and jellies, the only place I see KBF products anymore. I went on to spend way too much time watching Darlene and Annette be talented and pretty. Thanks for sharing, tterrace!

Thanks for the trip back in time. I still recall our first trip to Disney World in Orlando back in December 1971, two months after it had opened. The place was brand spanking new and to this 11 year old, quite magical.

1961 album on Disney's Buena Vista label (BV-3310): "High and Dry with The Yachtsmen"

"It feels like you'll never get there."

Once again tterrance hits my nostalgia nerve. We were at Disneyland monthly in the early 60's. It was inexpensive all day fun. I remember how proud we all were to see Daddy's ride. He was proudly employed by Douglas, then McDonnell Douglas and ultimately retired from Boeing. I was terrified to go to the moon because I didn't want to get stuck there without a robot.

I mean obviously it's the wave of the typographical future.

In these 1960s photos I am always looking for myself as a kid. In the 1990s, as an adult, my family had annual passes since we lived so close to Disneyland. My young daughter and I would go to the park at least 30 times each year. We would stand just behind tourist groups being photographed at the Main Street flag pole. All over Asia are photos which include a redhaired guy and his daughter.

We rode on the sky buckets on the last day they were operating.

During one of our family trips to Disneyland, we stayed at the above named motel. What a groovy, space-age place it was when it was brand new (around 1965 I believe). In addition to the 100% futuristic outer-space theme and astronomy inspired decor throughout the complex, there was an unbelievable landscaping of all topiary shrubs and trees, sculpted into fantastic shapes. The outdoor restrooms around the pool were round and were called "moon domes" and the stair railings were embellished with attention-getting melon size green glass spheres that looked like planets. What a wonderful dreamy mood it created, enjoyed by the entire family. Unfortunately, the glass spheres didn't last long as people broke them off and stole them and after several renovations in the name of "updating", it bore no resemblance to the original architecture. Like everything else though, it was fun while it lasted; my kids never forgot it, though now it is merely a memory of long lost surroundings.

Listening to their live music was probably better than listening to a continuous recording of "It's a Small World," after that attraction made its way to Disneyland from the New York World's Fair.

I think those were the names of another favorite college-aged vocal & piano group who performed at Disneyland in the mid 1960s nearby on Main Street. I'd forgotten The Yachtsmen Quartet; thanks for including their information with the Tomorrowland picture.

I built a model of this rocket from a kit. I still remember its delicate legs and nose cone, and the thrill of applying the decals.

That's the Yachtsmen Quartet, Disneyland regulars at the time, performing on the platform at the bottom of the tower.

Looks like four Navy officers in choker whites performing a song (Anchors Aweigh?) on that bandstand in the lower left of the photo.

That's the trouble with the future. We keeping catching up to it.

I believe the Rocketship was reused in the Florida Disney World in the entrance to Tomorrowland Space Mountain ride in the 1990s. I remember seeing it there, or a very reasonable replica. Disney stores many of the older displays in a large warehouse there.

Tterrace: who were the fellows in 'Navy' uniforms, in the lower left corner of the picture? They appear to be playing musical instruments?

I was thinking about attractions being removed and replaced. Yes, I suppose
they had to stay ahead of tomorrow.

I think the rocket, which had been there since the park's 1955 opening (and then TWA-branded) was by 1965 starting to look rather Yesterday-landish compared to the real things people were by then familiar with after years of live TV coverage of Cape Canaveral space launchings.