Main Street had a different feel to me. Back then I really didn't see that part of the park as a big K-mart area. It was my "Doorway" to other times and other places. The flower stall vendors, and the glass blowers, the pharmacy. All of that, to me, was just part of setting the stage for the rest of my day. Sure! I bought a TON of stuff in the park, but usually in all the OTHER lands. The biggest attraction for me was the old Penny arcade. Here I would play for more than an hour on all the games. Some were older than my father... some were the newest "high tech" games available. Giggle... and the High Tech games usually included a black light playfield, and some kind of vehicle.... my favorites of this kind were the "Barnstormer" which had an airplane you "flew" around a course trying to hit special targets when they were lit.... the plane was actually hanging vertically down in the machine, but you THOUGHT you saw it on the horizontal course in front of you due to the image being projected there with a mirror.... my other favorite was the "Moon Lander" game, which had the same black light "world" and had a Lunar Module dropping down from above, lowered on a black thread to make it seem invisible, and you had to guide the ship to the right landing site or it would "blow up!" Laura, [email protected]
The photograph is from the booklet
Walt Disney's pictorial souvenir book of Disneyland, page 4.
Updated: November 3, 2001