Throwback Thursday: Just-Us-Two-Girls Weekend

When I was eight years old, my father and friends decided to go boating and camping at Lake Isabella.  Mom decided to stay home and my nine-year-old sister was chosen to tag along with the campers.  I was upset that Patty was able to go on a special trip and I wasn’t.  Mom decided to make it a just-us-two-girls-weekend.  We went to the newest theme park, Pacific Ocean Park.  I was still pouting but glad to head to the ocean.  Wow!  P-O-P!

This interesting theme park was created to compete with Disneyland.  The best amusement park designers were called to action and on July, 1958 the 28-acre park, built on a pier between Santa Monica and Venice Beach, was opened.
It was spectacular.  In its brief heyday, it boasted the traditional arcades, Ferris wheels, and funhouses, plus a host of innovative simulations including the “underwater” Neptune’s Kingdom and the space-age Flight to Mars. 

Guests could float above the midway and over the ocean in bubbles on the Ocean Skyway or ride the Tiki-styled Mystery Island Banana Train (complete with an erupting volcano). The park also incorporated marine life displays and had a Sea Circus with a baby sea elephant that danced to rock ’n’ roll, a diving mule, and a lifeboat helmed by chimpanzees. And it had a ballroom that hosted both Lawrence Welk and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

After the fun at the park, Mom and I went to the beach to play.  I remember two specific things about that day.  First, I had to buy my sister a gift from the park.  I bought her a sea shell with smaller shells inside the larger shell.  And secondly, I remember playing in the ocean and having the riptide roll me out toward the sea.  Good thing I had those swimming lessons!

I visited the park once again in 1962 with my best friend Gaylea Holloway.  We were twelve years old and lovin the groovy park.  Unfortunately, the park, which once had more daily visitors than Disneyland at the time, started losing money due to need to upgrade infrastructure and remodeling, as well as renovating the city of Santa Monica.  It closed in 1967 and fell into disarray along the ocean.

Pacific Ocean Park was a great innovative theme park that set many different standards for parks in the future.  How cool to ride a roller coaster over the ocean?  How cool was it to watch a sea mammal show and then take a ride to Mars?  

I have always loved the ocean and didn't pout for long about Patty's trip to Lake Isabella.  I had the fun of a day on the pier at the Pacific Ocean Park before it all rotted away. 

And so it goes
peace~~~