TOD:
I was born PDL, using the distinction that MUSIC GUY so aptly made, and made a number of trips to Knott's Berry Farm in my childhood. It was THE place to go in those days. I adored the room that was on a slant, and am still totally intrigued by such wackiness. There was an alligator farm next door. No one's mentioned the alligator farm; does anyone else remember it?
Disneyland opened a few years later and my parents took me there when I was seven. I went a couple more times, the most NOTABLE BY FAR being in high school, when a bunch of us from Bluth Bros Theatre went there together. WHERE was BK??? He must not have been there with us, because he'd surely remember it if he was. Lulu was there. And we all danced down Main St, arm in arm, singing We're Off to See the Wizard. Was Walter Willison there? He might have been.
I also went to Pacific Ocean Park, which I found absolutely fascinating, and, prior to that, the old Santa Monica Pier, which isn't really an amusement park by today's standards, but did have rides and games and such.
I may have mentioned that, when I was ten, I turned the playhouse in my back yard into a "spook house" for a Halloween party--my own personal little amusement park--complete with dismembered "hands" and other treats.
Apparently, this form of insanity runs in the family because, many years later, I learned that my cousin's husband, one of the electricians on MURDER, SHE WROTE, set up a JAWS remake in their backyard pool. With a background like this, I hope I can be forgiven my idiosyncrasies!
