This was a commercial 35mm Kodachrome slide purchased in the gift shop at Cypress Gardens. My mother brought back this exact slide and several others from her "solo" vacation trips there in the mid fifties. The series of slides (perhaps 6 in all) appeared to have been taken of the same show and featured many of the same skiers in various combinations including a very muscular and handsome man she dated for a short time and went back to visit more than once. She thought it was one of the most romantic places in the world and 15 years later she relocated to live near there but her lover had moved on.

I went there quite a few summers during the 1980's. This pic brings back some awesome memories... so badly I wanted to be one of the Southern belles strolling through the gardens with her parasol on a warm Florida summer afternoon. Thank you for this delightful image from my childhood!!

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]