Monday, September 04, 2023

The More You Know, The Less You Know



When you find yourself laboring on Labor Day, something’s wrong. I have been collecting vintage Disneyland slides for over fifteen years now. Some have dates stamped on them, some have handwritten notes, and others come with a big fat zilcho. Over the years, I have learned a few clues that determine when the undated ones were shot (and some help from a team of experts who know way more than I do). Originally, I had these first two images of the Mark Twain marked as 1955. However, when I recently noticed that Tom Sawyer Island was in existence, oops…must be after 1956.



The rest of these images were all marked March 1956.



On the Mark Twain, you can clearly see the patriotic bunting which I believe was only used during the month of July. In the background on the right of this image you can clearly see that Tom Sawyer Island is alive and inhabited by guests, which pushes the date to after June 1956.



Whoever coined the phrase, “Ignorance is bliss,” sure wasn’t fooling. At the end of the day, you have to realize that in the grand scheme of things, you just have to let go. OCD be damned. I’m tired of laboring on Labor Day.

See more vintage and contemporary Disneyland photos at my main website.

3 comments:

Nanook said...

Dave-
"I’m tired of laboring on Labor Day".

I couldn't agree more. (You could always 'sit a spell' on TSI and do some angling...)

Bryan said...

I'm always tempted to go off the deep end and also bizarre explanations about the color of green of the water and the Rarity of an algae bloom during one specific week of the year just to narrow down the picture. But of course I would be lying and just making up crazy stuff for the sake of entertainment if I did that. Based on the space between the openings in the netting, the freshness of the mural painted on the stagecoach, the specific Woodland style garbage can and the pink ticket book and the guy's hand I think we can accurately conclude this is July 27th 1956 approximately 2:00 p.m.

Daveland said...

Nanook - I would only sit a spell on TSI if I could have it all to myself. And maybe Willis, too.

Bryan - Are you sure it's not 2:09pm?