Throwback Thursday! I remember being a child in the 1980s and standing at the entrance to this gigantic story book in a forest in Pennsylvania. Two children were welcoming me to enter and the pages read:
“Here is the Land of Once upon a Time …Step through the pages of this big Story Book…and visit the people and places every child knows…and Loves. Here Dreams are real And so are your Story Book Friends.”
My family didn’t go on many trips, and my excitement was tangible. I loved to read, and I knew that once I walked through this door, wonderful things awaited me. Story Book Forest was my first Fairytale Park, and this trip is the very reason Enchanted Kiddieland exists!
I visited the park again in 2009 and stepped through the book as an adult. (it is still a massive sight to behold!) I felt the same excitement I had felt 30 years prior. I’ve been back one time since and each time that childlike wonder returns to me. I am so grateful that its still around today and remains, for the most part, unchanged!
What memories do you have from these parks? Did you walk through the pages of the big book? Tell us here or on our Facebook page!
Imagine a place
Serene, tranquil, and peaceful
Full of weightlessness
A world as old as time, and as new as a dream.
Kiddieland is based out of the Philly area, so locals may have seen some billboards popping up in our area from Adventure Aquarium promising MERMAIDS this November. If you’re not already a fan of kitschy roadside attractions, you may not be aware of the rich history of the Weeki Wachee Mermaids (who will be gracing the aquarium with their first northeast tour date their 67 year history!) The mermaids hail from Weeki Wachee Springs in central FL, a national park /town that has affectionately been dubbed “Mermaid City” and their kitschy show has to be seen to be believed. In fact, I’m sure you’ve never seen anything else like it in your life.
The mermaids have been swimming since 1947 when Newton Perry, a former Navy Seal saw a business opportunity and opened an underwater theater 6 feet into the limestone of the spring. After some experimentation, he invented a forced air breathing tube that could be dropped into the water allowing the mermaids to “breathe” underwater without the use of SCUBA equipment or air tanks. Now all he needed were some pretty girls! He scouted and trained girls to swim, breathe, smile, and even eat in this new underwater ballet. This was no easy feat considering the currents run at over 5 miles per hour. It takes a very athletic mermaid to stay perfectly in place in a 5 mile current, but they do it with grace and beauty. The girls now go through a full year of training and are required to pass their “mermaid test” to become a mermaid! Since cars were sparse in the 1940s, the sirens were said to have lured roadside travelers to the attraction by running to the highway in their bathing suits! Needless to say, cars started stopping. Interest in the attraction grew greatly in the 1950s and 1960s and the area was eventually purchased by ABC who built the current theater-16 feet below the surface. Plenty of Movies and TV shows have been filmed there since, and the show was a worldwide sensation, even bringing in celebrities like Elvis Presley to see the mermaids in action. The full history is long and worth your time. You can check out more on the Weeki Wachee website.
We’re not like other women,
We don’t have to clean an oven
And we never will grow old,
We’ve got the world by the tail!
-Lyrics from the Weeki Wachee Little Mermaid show
If it all sounds too good to be true, think again. The mermaids still swim today. Twice daily, live mermaids with bright tails and glittery tops dive into the deepest natural spring on earth to put on shows for eager families, usually with children (mostly little girls) in tow. I was lucky enough to catch them in June for both of their daily shows.
The day that I visited they put on “The Little Mermaid” (adapted from the Hans Christian Anderson story) and “Fish Tales” featuring segments from some of the best loved shows over the decades. Past shows have included Snow White, Alice in Waterland, Underwater Follies, We got to see the famous “eating and drinking” underwater act, which they still do in the Fish Tales show. The elaborate 1960s props and costumes speak to the popularity of the attraction at that time.
I came across this treasure of a 1964 Super 8mm film of Alice in Waterland that still has my mind spinning.
You can see photos and video, but nothing compares to seeing these talented, strong, yet graceful mermaids (and mermen!) swim up to the glass in person. It is truly breathtaking and I’m not surprised to see that the show still brings in a crowd. Sure, at times the shows feels dated, but isn’t that what we’re here for? The music, the props, and the costumes are an amazing time capsule to a simpler time when a good idea and a little bit of money could lead to an empire worthy of network television and celebrity attention. This is the legacy of an entrepreneurial diver with a dream to make people believe in mermaids, and almost 70 years later, the gimmick still works. Every little girl in that place left with the dream of becoming a mermaid.
The kitschiest kookiest part of the modern show can be seen here with the mermaids performing their brassy theme song:
In other areas of the Weeki Wachee National Park, you can take a Riverboat Cruise, See the Wilderness show or visit the water park at Buccaneer Bay. You also won’t want to miss a stop by the Mold-A-Rama machines (A beloved retro treat for roadside kitsch fans like myself!) Unfortunately, one of the Mold-A-Rama machines was down when I visited, so if anyone makes it back, and can make me the green mermaid on the seahorse, I will love you forever! The grounds are full of lush Florida greenery, and beautiful Grecian inspired mermaid statues, and at times it is very serene. If it weren’t for the squawking of the peacocks, I imagine that this might be the kind of place I could visit often to be alone with my thoughts, sort of like that muffled perception you have of the world when you are submerged in water, and you can’t hear anything above the surface. I encourage you to visit for yourself and see the mermaids swim live. The day filled me with a sense of deep history. You could feel it in the air, the memories of almost 7 decades in the bubbles of the deep water-days spent with family, nostalgia for a simpler time, and enchanted magic under the water. If you don’t believe in mermaids now, once you step inside, you can’t deny it. Mermaids are real.
Anyone who has seen the 2007 documentary King of Kong has heard of Funspot in Laconia, New Hampshire. This famous arcade museum now holds the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest arcade in the world with over 600 games! It’s where Billy Mitchell breaks high score records, and if you’re lucky you might even see Steve Weibe reach a Donkey Kong “kill screen“.
I bet what you didn’t know is that at one point Funspot was home to a Storybook park of it’s very own! When Bob Lawton opened the “Weirs Sports Center” in 1952 with $750 borrowed from his grandmother, no one had even heard of video games! In fact, for 25 years, Funspot operated as a family fun center offering little more than a mini golf, a penny arcade, and a snack bar. However, by 1964 Bob had expanded to a larger 21 acre location and renamed his business Funspot. After the expansion, in 1971 they added a new theme park called “Indian Village”. Five years later, Bob opened his first kiddie park, a walk through attraction based on fairy tales, and called it “Storybook Forest”.
The park featured walkaround characters like the Gingerbread Man and the Big Bad Wolf, fibergass figures made by Peter Hall, and housed a famously gingerbread shaped lake!
A promotional video from 1982 shows us everything the park had to offer, including some great shots of Storybook Forest and it’s shows.
By the following year, Indian Village would have closed, followed by the closure of Storybook Forest. Now the only remaining structure from the park is a lone red schoolhouse which still stands on the property.
But lucky for us, Bob still works at Funspot every day and he respects his history because 60 years of memories can be found on display in the snack bar, the “Braggin’ Dragon“. While you enjoy a slice of pizza or some nachos between games, we encourage you to stroll around the restaurant and take in the history that Bob has lovingly preserved here. You’ll find old park maps, menu boards, costumes, props, and signs from the park’s history. Nearby, you can still find some of Storybook Forest’s figures rescued from the trash heap and on exhibit for the enjoyment of future generations. We never like to see attractions close, but what a wonderful way to pay tribute to a fallen park! Here are some of the items I found on display. (Do you recognize anything?)
Old King Cole, Hansel and Gretel, and the witch, Farmer in the Dell, and the Gingerbread Man costume head are all on display.
Closeup of Peter Hall figures, Walk-around Gingerbread Costume head, and some more great signs!
My favorite figure is this evil Frog Troll! (Does anyone know what he’s from?)
Thanks for saving these things for us, Bob! Keep on playing!
Although many kiddie parks focus solely on Santa and his elves, there is another holiday friend from our childhood lurking in the magical forests out there, he’s usually found in springtime hop hop hopping down the bunny trail and hiding eggs. That’s right! Today we’re covering the Easter Bunny! Here are some of the Bunnies I’ve met in my travels. Those pictured below hail from The Enchanted Forest (NY), Storybook Forest (PA) and Santa’s Village (NH)
The Magic Forest, weird as ever, has a few bunnies on property, the most intriguing of the lot is undoubtedly “Allison”. Who is Allison the bunny and why does she even exist? If you happen to know, please tell me in the comments so I can finally go to sleep at night!
Probably the most incredible Bunny hole of them all is tucked away in -appropriately enough- EGG Harbor, NJ (you see what I did there?) at Storybook Land .
Year round, you can peer into the windows of this asymmetrical kid sized (or is it bunny-sized?) house where a whole family of flop-ears resides. The best bunny, by far, is one very sassy lady bunny who just looks like she got off from her job as a switchboard operator circa 1965. She’s wearing her thick frame cat eye glasses with a pink bow and a dress pushing around a cart of full of eggs. Other bunnies dressed in their Easter Sunday Best hop about inside getting ready for the big day by painting eggs and decorating their Easter tree! GAH! Since this house can’t be entered, everything inside is pristine, and there is clearly some vintage stuff well preserved in here. I’ve visited a few times and the bunnies get new outfits every year or 2 so be sure to peek inside the windows for an overwhelming dose of cuteness if you make it here! This is most certainly one of the more charming Easter Bunny houses I’ve encountered.
Speaking of Storybook Land, If you want a truly special Egg-sperience for Easter this park has you covered with their annual “Easter Egg Hunt with Mr. and Mrs. Bunny” This year the egg hunt will be held on April 19th & 20th from noon to 4 pm (Note, this event is designed for small children!)
Don’t fret, For us bigger kids, you can still meet the bunny and his missus on April 12, 13, 18, 19, and 20!
Hope you enjoyed these funny bunnies and a Hoppy Easter to everyone! No I’d better hop out of here before I make any more bad bunny puns!
Enchanted Kiddieland! 