A So-Cal Summer Road Trip, 1965.....

Hidee Ho, dolls! I found some travel brochures the other day from my Great-Grandmother. She was always on the go to some exotic location or another (Israel, Spain, Japan, Mexico....) even into the '80s when I was little. And she always kept postcards, brochures, and other paper memorabelia of her trips.
Here she is with one of her tour groups (fourth place on the right side of the table with the silver horn rims on) in Monterrey, Mexico at a restaurant called 'Santa Rosa' in the early 1960s.



The things I want to show you today, though, are of a trip she took in 1965 and are a little closer to home than she usually stayed, if the other side of the country can be considered close, that is.

She and some friends took a trip up the coast of Southern California that summer and I think it must've been just grand to have gone along for that road trip....

Apparently, they stopped off at the Pottery Shack in Laguna Beach. This is a postcard she'd kept:



Apparently, it's changed hands since then, but it's still there. It's now a little grouping of shops called The Old Pottery Place. The weird 'greeter' is still greeting too, by the way.

Then they made a stop in the 'Happiest Place on Earth', Disneyland.
1965 was the park's tencennial, having opened in 1955.



I don't think I want a piece of that cake....not after those darn candles have been stompping all over it!
Here's the brochure that my Great-Granny kept with the year's logo and a map of the park on the inside. I just love the blues and golds!:





Here's some more images of the park in the '60s...back when good old Uncle Walt was around and Disney was fabulous:








Having lived in the South as a kid, MY first Disney experience was with DisneyWORLD (I didn't get around to DisneyLAND until a bit later). I had two favourite rides. One of them, Mr Toad's Wild Ride, was in existence already at Disneyland when my Great-Grandmother visited three decades earlier ( I wonder if she went on it?)...



The other of my two faves was always the Haunted Mansion...there's just something about all those 'Grim, grinning ghosts'!! It wasn't open in '65, although the outside was complete by 1963. The inside mechanics would take another six years to finish. Here is is on it's opening day, 9 August, 1969.





My favourite Disney park show as a kid was always The Enchanted Tiki Room. In fact, I can still sing the 'Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room' song word for word. That's how many times my poor parents had to sit through it with me!! As I've mentioned before, I've been obsessed with birds since I was a baby!
Here's the Tiki Room today, for anyone who has never experienced it's sheer jollyness:



I'm sure that my Great-Grandmother visited it. It's right up her alley! Here it is around the time of her trip:





Wonder if she stayed at the Disneyland Hotel??









Here is a little fashion spread that was done in Disneyland in 1961:







From Disneyland, they traveled north to the fabulous Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park.
These are all from a menu booklet my great-grandmother kept:



















Here are some more pics of Knott's (America's First Theme Park) in the the '60s:

















Kind of reminds me of Dollywood!...or Silver Dollar City, if you were around pre Dolly!

All this makes me want to go on a road trip...only I'd need a DeLorean because NO WAY could it be as cool a road trip today as it must have been in '65!!

Charmed Circle: Avebury and 'Children of The Stones'

Originally published 21 April, 2010


Hello, my little dumplings! Thought you might like to be let in on a secret village that I've fallen in love with. It's a perfect place to go when you've had enough of London and need a day of fresh air....and even better, there is a bit of pop culture thrown in! Even though the pop is the 70's, I think you'll agree that this is a piece of heaven any 60's flower child would adore!

After turning in my final toiles for my Collections outfits, I took a much needed trip to the countryside. Avebury in Wiltshire is the most gorgeous place I've ever seen--outside of Tennessee, of course!--and home to the largest stone circle in Europe. As a child, I used to watch reruns of 'Children of the Stones', which was not only a scrumptious piece of 1970's science fiction, but also a feast of polyester and sideburns! After getting past the 'Mom, what are they wearing?' stage, four year old me looked forward to watching crosslegged in front of the telly in the lobby of the dance studio while waiting for my class to begin.



Over the years, I searched for the programme and finally found it on Youtube. I knew I had to see the village for myself, just to see if it was actually as atmospheric and beautiful as I had always thought....Avebury didn't disappoint. Beautiful, remote, and peaceful. The bee's is the fact that you can actually walk in the fields where the stones are, even go up and touch them. Try doing that at Stonehenge!

The local antique shop is run by the self proclaimed 'Oldest Rocker Amongst the Oldest Rocks in England'. As my dear Granny would have said, 'He's a real corker!' I bought some gifties for my mum there and we had dinner and far too many pints at the Red Lion while waiting for our bus.



The village is easy to get to by train from London. We left out of Paddington to Swindon. In Swindon, we took a bus to Avebury. The bus drops off and picks up right outside of the Red Lion every hour or so.

Hope you get a chance to visit!

Here's a picnic perfect playlist to get you in the mood:



Lovesies....

DollyBird