Disneyland: Bridging The Age Gap

“To all who come to this happy place; welcome. Disneyland is your land.

Here age relives fond memories of the past...









and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.





Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals,



the dreams



and the hard facts that have created America...





with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”



In a very much related vein (and the inspiration for today's post which features Walt's Opening Day dedication speech), I recently received a request from Bryce Randle, who is the proud father of the scene-stealing tot shown below, doing his Iron Man impression at DCA:



Dave,

My name is Bryce Randle and I'm a huge Disneyland enthusiast. I live in Anaheim and obviously go as much as I can with my son. We are writing this book and currently have a kickstarter project for it. I'd love for you to share the page with your followers as I believe some would be interested in the idea. You probably know, but the success of the kickstarter project depends on its backers and we have a good pace, but appreciate all the help we can get.

Thanks in advance!

Before I get inundated with requests to promote the ventures of others, I will tell you that once I saw the video and read the details of this project, I totally fell in love with it. What a great idea. A guide to bring generations together at the park, helping them find joy in Walt's creation, which is what his original idea was all about. [Note: obviously many years later, the campaign is over; links have been removed]



After my post on puffing in the park, Daveland reader Douglas M. sent me a few vintage shots from his collection. Here is the background info from Douglas himself:

In this 1989 photo, the smoker is myself. The two kids with me are the children of two very close friends of mine. I am glad to say that as of last month, I've gone 23 years without smoking a cigarette. The taller of the two boys in the photo above was pivotal in getting me to stop smoking. He'd gotten an antismoking horror lesson at school (he was 6 at the time) that scared the crap out of him. He came to me that evening, crying his eyes out, and wailed at me: "Please don't smoke anymore, Doug, I don't want you to die." And he cried more. He touched the deepest part of my heart, and he succeeded where others had failed. There was such simple purity and uncomplicated love to his terror, terror for me, not for himself.

I remember nagging the crap out of my grandmother, attempting to get her to quit. Although she didn't give up cigarettes, she stopped smoking in front of me. Ah, the small victories of childhood.

Here are two more photos from Douglas' vintage "smoking collection":





Any other readers out there care to share your "Disneyland Smoking" photos? If so, feel free to email them to me at: dvdpicasso@aol.com

See more vintage & current Disneyland photos on my Disneyland web pages.