Returning to my childhood stomping grounds at William Land Park brings back a flood of memories from Thunderland, Fairytale Town, and the Sacramento Zoo.
• Exploring Thunderland (now Funderland) where the little train still runs through the expanded amusement park
• Reminiscing about Fairytale Town, which opened in August 1959, with its iconic attractions like Humpty Dumpty's wall, the rabbit hole slide, and pink popcorn
• Sharing memories of the Sacramento Zoo and its memorable exhibits, from the reptile house to the mischievous monkeys
• Reflecting on the zoo's planned move to Elk Grove and how these attractions have always felt connected
• Telling the hilarious story of my first crush at age 12 and how it ended disastrously on the spinning teacup ride at Thunderland
Please check out PatsPeeps.com to see what we're doing with local businesses. We'd love to represent and endorse local mom and pops, welcoming new businesses every day.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, it's Patrick.
This is Pat's Peeps 244.
And today I just happen to bein my old stomping grounds.
I've been here before on aprevious podcast, but I'm in
William Land Park, where mymother and father used to take
us as kids, and right now I'm byThunderland.
I just happen to be over here.
(00:21):
I had some dental things, ofcourse, going on this morning,
and this is a Thursday morning,so now I had some time to pass
it.
I'm outside of Thunderland.
Here comes a little train.
Oh my gosh, I have such greatmemories of this place and, if
memory serves me right, thisguy's pretty.
You know they'd be prettyanimated about the little train.
(00:44):
I love this.
Let's see if we can hear thetrain.
You know, this guy's not nearlyas animated, in fact he didn't
(01:07):
say anything.
But there's a little train.
Usually the guy would be reallyanimated.
You can hear the bell, sothere's a bunch of people on
this little train.
You know this place has beenaround a long time.
So Thunderland.
By the way, again Thursday.
(01:27):
What is today?
The 17th?
I believe the 17th of April.
I hope I got that right.
It's kind of an overcast day,but a little sun peeking through
.
It's kind of weird, because itwas so nice yesterday, but this
(01:51):
area here in William Land ParkI've mentioned on previous
episodes here on the Pat's Peeps, by the way.
Thank you for listening.
Please go to patspeepscom andsupport local business and this
particular area.
Not so much Thunderland, but Ihave a great story about
Thunderland as well.
But where else am I going towalk here real quick.
They are very special memoriesto me.
(02:13):
So I'm standing right in frontof the gate here at Thunderland
and you know this is a place itused to be just like this little
kid's roller coaster.
There'd be a few rides.
But take a listen.
I mean you hear that in thebackground they got I don't know
if we used to call that thescrambler or whatever.
(02:34):
We've got the plane rides overhere, big carousel.
I got to hand it to this place.
It really has not only beenable to stay in business all
these years, but they've reallyadded to the place.
They've really added a lot ofrides and things to this, to
(02:59):
what used to be this quaintlittle place.
How exciting is that?
So looks like everyone's havinga good time on a Thursday.
Now I'm just going to walk overhere.
Well, so, as I'm walking tothis other place, oh, look at
this.
Cotton candy, snow cones,apples, popcorn Ah, it smells so
good.
I just got a whiff of like thepopcorn or the something over
(03:24):
there.
Oh, man, that smells good.
So let me just take a walkacross a little road here.
I love this park, you know.
Just coming back from Italy, Iwill say this this is still, in
terms of a beautiful park, thisplace.
I've always thought WilliamLand Park was beautiful and
again, I grew up in this area.
(03:45):
That's why I say my oldstomping grounds.
I grew up in South Sacramento,for my early years in Elk Grove,
and we've got people out hereat the picnic tables, people
walking their cute little doggie.
But this place I'm coming up toright now, these two places
(04:10):
were very special to me andprobably to you if you were
growing up in Sacramento.
Up to my right here isFairytale Town, man, when I was
a kid, you know, and again sixkids in the family we'd load up
in the station wagon, head overto the Country Squire the 72
(04:34):
Country Squire head over to theand, even earlier, the Rambler,
come on over here and we'd go toFairytale Town and to the zoo.
And there it is, the zoo which,what I'm sad to say, is moving,
and they're actually moving toElk Grove, which is ironic and a
(04:57):
bit strange for me Because,again, I'm from Elk Grove,
initially born in Elk Grove,technically in Sacramento, at
Mercy Hospital on J Street.
But we lived in Elk Grove, thenmoved to Sacramento, south Sac.
But you know, you'd come overhere like on a field trip in
school, could be or Cub Scouts,or Weeblos or whatever you know
(05:20):
with your friends, your mom, dadwould take you and you'd have
so here's Land Park, what isthat?
Drive, or whatever.
But you've got the zoo on oneside and then Fairytale Town
right across the street, justwalk across the crosswalk.
Well, unfortunately, I don'tsay I shouldn't say
(05:41):
unfortunately, you know, I guessit had to be done for whatever
reason, but the zoo is moving toElk Grove, which Elk Grove used
to be, like Mayberry.
It's one of the reasons that myfavorite show is the Andy
Griffith Show.
It reminds me of Elk Grove theway it used to be, the way I
grew up.
We even had a lady, honest toGod, that lived catty-corner
(06:04):
from us, on Halverson, and hername was Bea, and you know, of
course, aunt Bea in the AndyGriffith Show, and so it really
reminded me of it like LittleMayberry.
And now it's just, it's huge.
It's not what it used to bewhen you had EG Market and
(06:24):
Mar-Val and when you had ParkwayDrive-In.
Anyone remember ParkwayDrive-In?
God, it was a great community.
We had the Regal gas station onthe corner, four-way stop that
made the front page.
We had a red flashing light inthe middle of town.
But now it's different.
But the zoo's going to be there.
(06:45):
So I don't, you know.
I'm just looking across thestreet from Fairytale Town.
Right now I'm in front of thewall, the very familiar wall at
fairytale town, where you haveHumpty Dumpty who sat on the
wall.
That's funny, joe Michaels, mycolleague at work, by the way,
host of the Pat Walsh show onKFBK he kept referring to, for
(07:07):
whatever reason, to HumptyDumpty last night.
How random is that.
And laughing.
Anyhow, today I'm sitting herein front of the Humpty Dumpty
last night how random is that.
And laughing.
Anyhow, today I'm sitting herein front of the Humpty Dumpty
wall, so, and that's theentrance to Fairytale Town, and
God you know.
And I'm looking at the zoo.
It looks so beautiful acrossthe street, the property is so
nice and I just wonder what arethey going to do with that.
(07:29):
There's a lot of potential Ican see there, but I hope they
do the right thing.
I just it's going to be sad forme to see the zoo moving
because again, it was likecertain great songs over time
Shining Star, that's the Way ofthe World by Earth, wind, fire.
(07:50):
They used to connect together.
You know, heartbreaker, liveand Love, and Made by led
zeppelin.
Things connect together.
Well, the zoo and the fairytale town, they connect together
.
To me they're supposed to benext to each other, so I have
such vivid memories of cominghere.
You know, fairy tale town thatwas like that would have been
(08:13):
like the cool place to have.
Oh, look, it's the old mother.
I'm okay, I have the oh they'veadded like a big cottage or
something back in there.
It's oh, that is cool littlestraw roof, what they call it
thatch roof or whatever theycall that.
Maybe I said that wrong.
Anyhow, that's something newthat I had never seen.
(08:34):
And they have the castle inthere Was that they used to have
birthday parties.
I have a little history ofFairytale Town.
God, I remember we used to buythe pink popcorn in there.
Anyone have these same memories.
You get that like that block ofpink popcorn.
But Fairytale Town let's seethis thing I don't know how long
(09:02):
has it been around FairytaleTown.
So January 2nd of 1956, theystarted making little models of
it, what they were going tobuild.
They started breaking ground inOctober, october 2nd of 1958.
That's when the constructionbegan.
With the help of the localschool children who just picked
up the shovels, broke groundthere, right here at Fairytale
(09:24):
Town.
They continued the constructionto 59.
Actually, my let's see, thegrand opening was in August of
59.
You could have birthday parties.
Like I said, birthday partiesbegan at Fairytale Town and they
provided you a decorated cake.
(09:44):
I always wanted to do this whenI was a kid, but I couldn't
tell if it was for boys or girls.
It seemed kind of like it wasmore for girls, so I never
really asked for it, but I stillthought it would be cool.
And so they provide you withthis decorated cake with candles
, ice cream, punch utensils, acard for the birthday child, you
(10:05):
know, to be signed by the partygoers, and a recreation A
recreation which I guess it waslike a recreation of like a
royal kind of a birthday party.
Anyone ever have those?
(10:25):
I don't know if my parentscould afford that.
I don't know if they couldafford that for six kids.
Every time there was a birthdaythey used to have the Easter
egg hunts out here, whichstarted April 2nd of 1960.
Fairytale Town's first birthday, august 30th 1960.
They put in the Hiroshima TaroJapanese Garden in 1961.
(10:50):
So anyhow, just looking at someof the, you know what my
favorite thing was.
I don't know what you Was.
It called the Lost Trails.
You know they had that wall.
What was it?
I don't know what the technicalname, maybe I can find it here.
But you get on that Lost Trailsand I'd like to get ahead or
behind my brothers, and then I'djump down off there into the
bushes.
Wait, wait for them to come byand I jump up.
Ah, scare them, god.
(11:12):
That was fun.
Okay, they had the rabbit holeslide.
Remember that?
Oh my gosh, what memories.
You go down the rabbit holeslide.
At Fairytale Town.
They had the oh God.
I remember they had the barnslide.
Remember the barn slide?
The old woman who lived in hisshoe I'm looking at that right
now.
That was a slide.
(11:32):
The old woman who lived in hisshoe I'm looking at that right
now.
That was a slide.
The old woman who lived in hisshoe, the old hippo.
So they had King Arthur'sCastle.
That was the name of it.
King Arthur's Castle, originallybuilt with no roof.
So in 1980, no roof.
So in 1980, a roof wasinstalled to cover the Royal
(11:56):
Court.
That's what I thought.
I didn't think there was a roofto it, but it was a gift from
the Junior League of Sacramento.
It was made possible bydonations, but anyhow, that's
when that went in.
I remember you could go up thebarn slide.
Remember the barn slide?
They used to have an owl upthere in a cage at the barn
(12:18):
slide.
I'm going to take a look overhere and see what else I can see
.
Mother goose, remember, theyhad a huge tortoise.
I swear.
They said it was 100 years old.
This old, old tortoise they had, it was a hundred years old,
this old, old tortoise they had.
Yeah, I remember the barn.
They had cows out there,sometimes, next to the barn
(12:40):
slide, jack and the Beanstalk.
They had, oh gosh, the gardenout, the Japanese garden, little
Sherwood forest.
They had that little stage.
Oh, wow, anyhow, what is it?
(13:01):
The Yellow Brick Road.
So Fairytale Town's been arounda long time.
Yeah, here we go.
The renovated.
It was the Farmer Brown's Barn,farmer Brown's Barn.
It got repainted, it wasrenovated, I guess, so visitors
could enjoy viewing the farmanimals and sliding down the
(13:22):
slides.
Renovations included adding achicken coop to the barn, new
wildlife exhibits and more.
But that was the barn slide,but there was another one.
There was another slide overthere that had the owl up there
on the top of the tower and I'dstand there and stare at that
thing.
So great memories here.
(13:45):
And then you go over again tothe zoo and I think the first
thing that I was alwaysinterested in excuse me, the
first thing I was for whateverweird, weird reason I was always
interested in was going intothe reptile house.
You know, you go into thereptile house.
They had a nice reptile house.
(14:06):
So you go in there, check outthe snakes you know be like,
don't tap on their glass.
You're looking in the.
You know they have these hugeanacondas and pythons and
poisonous snakes in there andbig lizards and things.
Then I used to like to look atthe nice bird exhibit in there.
(14:31):
What do you call that?
Sanctuary or whatever for thebirds?
If that's what you call it, Idon't know.
Of course I always want to lookat the big cats, see if you
could find a black panther,which you would A leopard, sorry
, coughing for some reason, allof a sudden.
(14:52):
All of that was so cool, seeingthe lions and the tigers, you
know, just the zoo, but then I'dalways.
The thing I really wanted to seewas the monkeys.
For some reason, like theorangutans, the chimpanzees and
those little spider monkeys,Dargonit, I apologize for that.
(15:16):
I think I I'm walking to thisdirt area and I think I kicked
up dirt here and I'm choking alittle bit on some dust.
But anyhow, you know monkeys, Iused to like to look at the
monkeys.
Monkeys can be a filthy littledisgusting animal, can't they?
I remember well I can't eventell that story I saw this
(15:40):
monkey doing something.
I said are you kidding me?
You're doing that in public?
Hey, now anyone else would bearrested.
He's like yeah, whatever.
I remember one time you know.
It says do not feed the animals.
And like an idiot, I decided Idon't know, I was probably late
teens or whatever.
(16:01):
Yeah, I just give this littlemonkey.
It's not, it wasn't tiny.
I give this monkey because themonkey was reaching through the
bars like looking at you knowhow they look at you got those
little eyes and looking at you,the monkey reaches out to you,
give me something.
So I went to give him a peanutor something.
This little son of a Grabbed myhand.
(16:23):
I'll tell you, superhumanstrength freaked me out.
Little monkey grabbing at meLearned my lesson.
I think someone yelled, I don'tknow, I tried to put it out of
my mind.
I think someone yelled at me orsomething hey, don't feed the
monkeys.
There's a sign there.
All right, so over atThunderland, I was going to tell
(16:44):
you that story earlier.
So at Thunderland, where I'mheaded back to right now, so I
had the biggest crush when I was12 years old.
I had the biggest crush on myfriend John Bandy's cousin,
cheryl Bandy, and she lived, Ithink, in Arizona and she had
(17:07):
visited and, oh my God, I wasjust smitten and she was coming
to visit again.
And I would just again 11 or 12years old and John Bandy played
on my little league team.
We played little leaguetogether.
My dad was the manager for thatparticular team and when I
(17:31):
found out that his 12-year-oldcousin, cheryl, was coming to
town, I was so excited I was, Icouldn't believe it.
I said, okay, I'm going to, I'mgoing to talk to her and I'm
going to be nice to her and youknow, like maybe I could hold
(17:53):
her hand or get a kiss orsomething.
You know, I don't know whatever, you're thinking of a little
kid like that, but you have amad crush.
So here she comes to town andboy, oh boy, I remember her
being so cute.
Man, you know that feeling youget when you're a kid and you
(18:14):
have that crush on someone andyou're just it's like
overwhelming, it's so exciting.
What are you going to do?
Are you going to talk to them,whatever?
So she comes to town and Ithought, okay, I'll be brave and
I'll talk to her.
(18:35):
And then I, then we decided, oh, we're all going to go to
Thunderland.
So must have been.
John's parents took us over hereto Thunderland, me, john, and
his cousin, the beautiful CherylBandy, who proceeded.
The first thing she wanted togo on, and again this park was
(18:58):
much smaller.
Back then, the first thing shewanted to go on and again this
park was much smaller.
Back then, the first thing shewanted to go on is the ride,
which I don't know, I just callit the Barf-a-tron or the
Vominator, vomit, the nausea,the nauseator.
So you sit down, it's like themat, what is the one?
(19:20):
It's like you sit in a cup andit's got a wheel in the middle
of it.
And if you spin the wheel.
Not only does the thing goaround, you know, in circles,
the ride itself, but if you spinthe thing in the middle, now
you're spinning this teacupthing.
It's like the teacups atdisneyland, how I imagine that
they were.
And so this thing, the startsspinning.
(19:43):
And I'm looking at her and man,I didn't want to spin at all,
and she started spinning it.
And the next thing, I know,everything is going blurry and
now and now the well, thesickness begins, and as they
begin to, you know, get sickeverywhere.
(20:08):
I believe that that probablyturned everything off and thus
probably came the end of thedream of later in life, when I
was a grown-up, being able tomarry Cheryl Bandy Because she
was so darn cute.
But you just can't throw up onthem On the first date, even at
(20:28):
12 years old.
You know what I mean.
You can't throw up on them,even at 12 years old.
Oh, look, here comes a littlecar.
It's like Utopia.
Was it called Utopia atDisneyland?
Is that what that was called,where you could drive the cars?
Autotopia, something like that.
(20:50):
I loved that.
So, anyhow, it is a beautifulday, hello, hello, hello.
It is a beautiful day.
All the kids are having a greattime.
Let me start up my car here.
(21:12):
I usually end it with somemusic.
I don't know if I should or not, but why not?
You know what?
I think I'll just leave it atthat today.
I'll just leave it at thattoday.
No, wait a minute, let's do it.
Start it up.
All right, just do it.
I have to end with somethinghere.
Some music.
Patspeepscom.
What is this?
(21:35):
244.
Patspeeps.
244.
Stroll through William LandPark.
Memories of William Land Park.
Let's see what we would have onthe radio here.
Let's see if we can guess whatit is.
Here we go.
Oh, how long has this beengoing on?
This is, uh what.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Ace right, ace 1975, baby, it's Pat's Peeps 244.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Hopefully you'll get a chance to check out
PatsPeepscom, see what we'redoing with local businesses.
We'd love to represent you,endorse you, local mom and pops,
patspeepscom, welcoming newbusinesses every day.
Here we go.
Now you know what I think I'mgoing to do.
(22:38):
I think I'm going to go over tomy old neighborhood over here
over on Franklin.
I think I'm going to go toScott's Burger Shack.
Get me a Fat Boy Combo.
That's what I might do.
Thank you for tuning in.
(23:05):
Please check out my radio show,the Pat Walsh Show KFBK Radio
Sacramento.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Heard everywhere on your free iHeart app.
I'm a little crazy for fancypersuasion.
Don't admit that it's part of ascheme, but I can't help but
have my suspicion, cause I ain'tquite as dumb as I seem.
All you say is that we'repretending To break up and see
in this way, but there ain't anyuse in pretending it could
happen to us any day.
(23:45):
Thank you.
Hi, it's Patrick.
This is Pat's Peeps 244.
And today I just happen to bein my old stomping grounds.
I've been here before on aprevious podcast, but I'm in
William Land Park, where mymother and father used to take
us as kids, and right now I'm byThunderland.
I just happen to be over here.
(00:21):
I had some dental things, ofcourse, going on this morning,
and this is a Thursday morning,so now I had some time to pass
it.
I'm outside of Thunderland.
Here comes a little train.
Oh my gosh, I have such greatmemories of this place and, if
memory serves me right, thisguy's pretty.
You know they'd be prettyanimated about the little train.
(00:44):
I love this.
Let's see if we can hear thetrain.
You know, this guy's not nearlyas animated, in fact he didn't
(01:07):
say anything.
But there's a little train.
Usually the guy would be reallyanimated.
You can hear the bell, sothere's a bunch of people on
this little train.
You know this place has beenaround a long time.
So Thunderland.
By the way, again Thursday.
(01:27):
What is today?
The 17th?
I believe the 17th of April.
I hope I got that right.
It's kind of an overcast day,but a little sun peeking through
.
It's kind of weird, because itwas so nice yesterday, but this
(01:51):
area here in William Land ParkI've mentioned on previous
episodes here on the Pat's Peeps, by the way.
Thank you for listening.
Please go to patspeepscom andsupport local business and this
particular area.
Not so much Thunderland, but Ihave a great story about
Thunderland as well.
But where else am I going towalk here real quick.
They are very special memoriesto me.
(02:13):
So I'm standing right in frontof the gate here at Thunderland
and you know this is a place itused to be just like this little
kid's roller coaster.
There'd be a few rides.
But take a listen.
I mean you hear that in thebackground they got I don't know
if we used to call that thescrambler or whatever.
(02:34):
We've got the plane rides overhere, big carousel.
I got to hand it to this place.
It really has not only beenable to stay in business all
these years, but they've reallyadded to the place.
They've really added a lot ofrides and things to this, to
(02:59):
what used to be this quaintlittle place.
How exciting is that?
So looks like everyone's havinga good time on a Thursday.
Now I'm just going to walk overhere.
Well, so, as I'm walking tothis other place, oh, look at
this.
Cotton candy, snow cones,apples, popcorn Ah, it smells so
good.
I just got a whiff of like thepopcorn or the something over
(03:24):
there.
Oh, man, that smells good.
So let me just take a walkacross a little road here.
I love this park, you know.
Just coming back from Italy, Iwill say this this is still, in
terms of a beautiful park, thisplace.
I've always thought WilliamLand Park was beautiful and
again, I grew up in this area.
(03:45):
That's why I say my oldstomping grounds.
I grew up in South Sacramento,for my early years in Elk Grove,
and we've got people out hereat the picnic tables, people
walking their cute little doggie.
But this place I'm coming up toright now, these two places
(04:10):
were very special to me andprobably to you if you were
growing up in Sacramento.
Up to my right here isFairytale Town, man, when I was
a kid, you know, and again sixkids in the family we'd load up
in the station wagon, head overto the Country Squire the 72
(04:34):
Country Squire head over to theand, even earlier, the Rambler,
come on over here and we'd go toFairytale Town and to the zoo.
And there it is, the zoo which,what I'm sad to say, is moving,
and they're actually moving toElk Grove, which is ironic and a
(04:57):
bit strange for me Because,again, I'm from Elk Grove,
initially born in Elk Grove,technically in Sacramento, at
Mercy Hospital on J Street.
But we lived in Elk Grove, thenmoved to Sacramento, south Sac.
But you know, you'd come overhere like on a field trip in
school, could be or Cub Scouts,or Weeblos or whatever you know
(05:20):
with your friends, your mom, dadwould take you and you'd have
so here's Land Park, what isthat?
Drive, or whatever.
But you've got the zoo on oneside and then Fairytale Town
right across the street, justwalk across the crosswalk.
Well, unfortunately, I don'tsay I shouldn't say
(05:41):
unfortunately, you know, I guessit had to be done for whatever
reason, but the zoo is moving toElk Grove, which Elk Grove used
to be, like Mayberry.
It's one of the reasons that myfavorite show is the Andy
Griffith Show.
It reminds me of Elk Grove theway it used to be, the way I
grew up.
We even had a lady, honest toGod, that lived catty-corner
(06:04):
from us, on Halverson, and hername was Bea, and you know, of
course, aunt Bea in the AndyGriffith Show, and so it really
reminded me of it like LittleMayberry.
And now it's just, it's huge.
It's not what it used to bewhen you had EG Market and
(06:24):
Mar-Val and when you had ParkwayDrive-In.
Anyone remember ParkwayDrive-In?
God, it was a great community.
We had the Regal gas station onthe corner, four-way stop that
made the front page.
We had a red flashing light inthe middle of town.
But now it's different.
But the zoo's going to be there.
(06:45):
So I don't, you know.
I'm just looking across thestreet from Fairytale Town.
Right now I'm in front of thewall, the very familiar wall at
fairytale town, where you haveHumpty Dumpty who sat on the
wall.
That's funny, joe Michaels, mycolleague at work, by the way,
host of the Pat Walsh show onKFBK he kept referring to, for
(07:07):
whatever reason, to HumptyDumpty last night.
How random is that.
And laughing.
Anyhow, today I'm sitting herein front of the Humpty Dumpty
last night how random is that.
And laughing.
Anyhow, today I'm sitting herein front of the Humpty Dumpty
wall, so, and that's theentrance to Fairytale Town, and
God you know.
And I'm looking at the zoo.
It looks so beautiful acrossthe street, the property is so
nice and I just wonder what arethey going to do with that.
(07:29):
There's a lot of potential Ican see there, but I hope they
do the right thing.
I just it's going to be sad forme to see the zoo moving
because again, it was likecertain great songs over time
Shining Star, that's the Way ofthe World by Earth, wind, fire.
(07:50):
They used to connect together.
You know, heartbreaker, liveand Love, and Made by led
zeppelin.
Things connect together.
Well, the zoo and the fairytale town, they connect together
.
To me they're supposed to benext to each other, so I have
such vivid memories of cominghere.
You know, fairy tale town thatwas like that would have been
(08:13):
like the cool place to have.
Oh, look, it's the old mother.
I'm okay, I have the oh they'veadded like a big cottage or
something back in there.
It's oh, that is cool littlestraw roof, what they call it
thatch roof or whatever theycall that.
Maybe I said that wrong.
Anyhow, that's something newthat I had never seen.
(08:34):
And they have the castle inthere Was that they used to have
birthday parties.
I have a little history ofFairytale Town.
God, I remember we used to buythe pink popcorn in there.
Anyone have these same memories.
You get that like that block ofpink popcorn.
But Fairytale Town let's seethis thing I don't know how long
(09:02):
has it been around FairytaleTown.
So January 2nd of 1956, theystarted making little models of
it, what they were going tobuild.
They started breaking ground inOctober, october 2nd of 1958.
That's when the constructionbegan.
With the help of the localschool children who just picked
up the shovels, broke groundthere, right here at Fairytale
(09:24):
Town.
They continued the constructionto 59.
Actually, my let's see, thegrand opening was in August of
59.
You could have birthday parties.
Like I said, birthday partiesbegan at Fairytale Town and they
provided you a decorated cake.
(09:44):
I always wanted to do this whenI was a kid, but I couldn't
tell if it was for boys or girls.
It seemed kind of like it wasmore for girls, so I never
really asked for it, but I stillthought it would be cool.
And so they provide you withthis decorated cake with candles
, ice cream, punch utensils, acard for the birthday child, you
(10:05):
know, to be signed by the partygoers, and a recreation A
recreation which I guess it waslike a recreation of like a
royal kind of a birthday party.
Anyone ever have those?
(10:25):
I don't know if my parentscould afford that.
I don't know if they couldafford that for six kids.
Every time there was a birthdaythey used to have the Easter
egg hunts out here, whichstarted April 2nd of 1960.
Fairytale Town's first birthday, august 30th 1960.
They put in the Hiroshima TaroJapanese Garden in 1961.
(10:50):
So anyhow, just looking at someof the, you know what my
favorite thing was.
I don't know what you Was.
It called the Lost Trails.
You know they had that wall.
What was it?
I don't know what the technicalname, maybe I can find it here.
But you get on that Lost Trailsand I'd like to get ahead or
behind my brothers, and then I'djump down off there into the
bushes.
Wait, wait for them to come byand I jump up.
Ah, scare them, god.
(11:12):
That was fun.
Okay, they had the rabbit holeslide.
Remember that?
Oh my gosh, what memories.
You go down the rabbit holeslide.
At Fairytale Town.
They had the oh God.
I remember they had the barnslide.
Remember the barn slide?
The old woman who lived in hisshoe I'm looking at that right
now.
That was a slide.
(11:32):
The old woman who lived in hisshoe I'm looking at that right
now.
That was a slide.
The old woman who lived in hisshoe, the old hippo.
So they had King Arthur'sCastle.
That was the name of it.
King Arthur's Castle, originallybuilt with no roof.
So in 1980, no roof.
So in 1980, a roof wasinstalled to cover the Royal
(11:56):
Court.
That's what I thought.
I didn't think there was a roofto it, but it was a gift from
the Junior League of Sacramento.
It was made possible bydonations, but anyhow, that's
when that went in.
I remember you could go up thebarn slide.
Remember the barn slide?
They used to have an owl upthere in a cage at the barn
(12:18):
slide.
I'm going to take a look overhere and see what else I can see
.
Mother goose, remember, theyhad a huge tortoise.
I swear.
They said it was 100 years old.
This old, old tortoise they had, it was a hundred years old,
this old, old tortoise they had.
Yeah, I remember the barn.
They had cows out there,sometimes, next to the barn
(12:40):
slide, jack and the Beanstalk.
They had, oh gosh, the gardenout, the Japanese garden, little
Sherwood forest.
They had that little stage.
Oh, wow, anyhow, what is it?
(13:01):
The Yellow Brick Road.
So Fairytale Town's been arounda long time.
Yeah, here we go.
The renovated.
It was the Farmer Brown's Barn,farmer Brown's Barn.
It got repainted, it wasrenovated, I guess, so visitors
could enjoy viewing the farmanimals and sliding down the
(13:22):
slides.
Renovations included adding achicken coop to the barn, new
wildlife exhibits and more.
But that was the barn slide,but there was another one.
There was another slide overthere that had the owl up there
on the top of the tower and I'dstand there and stare at that
thing.
So great memories here.
(13:45):
And then you go over again tothe zoo and I think the first
thing that I was alwaysinterested in excuse me, the
first thing I was for whateverweird, weird reason I was always
interested in was going intothe reptile house.
You know, you go into thereptile house.
They had a nice reptile house.
(14:06):
So you go in there, check outthe snakes you know be like,
don't tap on their glass.
You're looking in the.
You know they have these hugeanacondas and pythons and
poisonous snakes in there andbig lizards and things.
Then I used to like to look atthe nice bird exhibit in there.
(14:31):
What do you call that?
Sanctuary or whatever for thebirds?
If that's what you call it, Idon't know.
Of course I always want to lookat the big cats, see if you
could find a black panther,which you would A leopard, sorry
, coughing for some reason, allof a sudden.
(14:52):
All of that was so cool, seeingthe lions and the tigers, you
know, just the zoo, but then I'dalways.
The thing I really wanted to seewas the monkeys.
For some reason, like theorangutans, the chimpanzees and
those little spider monkeys,Dargonit, I apologize for that.
(15:16):
I think I I'm walking to thisdirt area and I think I kicked
up dirt here and I'm choking alittle bit on some dust.
But anyhow, you know monkeys, Iused to like to look at the
monkeys.
Monkeys can be a filthy littledisgusting animal, can't they?
I remember well I can't eventell that story I saw this
(15:40):
monkey doing something.
I said are you kidding me?
You're doing that in public?
Hey, now anyone else would bearrested.
He's like yeah, whatever.
I remember one time you know.
It says do not feed the animals.
And like an idiot, I decided Idon't know, I was probably late
teens or whatever.
(16:01):
Yeah, I just give this littlemonkey.
It's not, it wasn't tiny.
I give this monkey because themonkey was reaching through the
bars like looking at you knowhow they look at you got those
little eyes and looking at you,the monkey reaches out to you,
give me something.
So I went to give him a peanutor something.
This little son of a Grabbed myhand.
(16:23):
I'll tell you, superhumanstrength freaked me out.
Little monkey grabbing at meLearned my lesson.
I think someone yelled, I don'tknow, I tried to put it out of
my mind.
I think someone yelled at me orsomething hey, don't feed the
monkeys.
There's a sign there.
All right, so over atThunderland, I was going to tell
(16:44):
you that story earlier.
So at Thunderland, where I'mheaded back to right now, so I
had the biggest crush when I was12 years old.
I had the biggest crush on myfriend John Bandy's cousin,
cheryl Bandy, and she lived, Ithink, in Arizona and she had
(17:07):
visited and, oh my God, I wasjust smitten and she was coming
to visit again.
And I would just again 11 or 12years old and John Bandy played
on my little league team.
We played little leaguetogether.
My dad was the manager for thatparticular team and when I
(17:31):
found out that his 12-year-oldcousin, cheryl, was coming to
town, I was so excited I was, Icouldn't believe it.
I said, okay, I'm going to, I'mgoing to talk to her and I'm
going to be nice to her and youknow, like maybe I could hold
(17:53):
her hand or get a kiss orsomething.
You know, I don't know whatever, you're thinking of a little
kid like that, but you have amad crush.
So here she comes to town andboy, oh boy, I remember her
being so cute.
Man, you know that feeling youget when you're a kid and you
(18:14):
have that crush on someone andyou're just it's like
overwhelming, it's so exciting.
What are you going to do?
Are you going to talk to them,whatever?
So she comes to town and Ithought, okay, I'll be brave and
I'll talk to her.
(18:35):
And then I, then we decided, oh, we're all going to go to
Thunderland.
So must have been.
John's parents took us over hereto Thunderland, me, john, and
his cousin, the beautiful CherylBandy, who proceeded.
The first thing she wanted togo on, and again this park was
(18:58):
much smaller.
Back then, the first thing shewanted to go on and again this
park was much smaller.
Back then, the first thing shewanted to go on is the ride,
which I don't know, I just callit the Barf-a-tron or the
Vominator, vomit, the nausea,the nauseator.
So you sit down, it's like themat, what is the one?
(19:20):
It's like you sit in a cup andit's got a wheel in the middle
of it.
And if you spin the wheel.
Not only does the thing goaround, you know, in circles,
the ride itself, but if you spinthe thing in the middle, now
you're spinning this teacupthing.
It's like the teacups atdisneyland, how I imagine that
they were.
And so this thing, the startsspinning.
(19:43):
And I'm looking at her and man,I didn't want to spin at all,
and she started spinning it.
And the next thing, I know,everything is going blurry and
now and now the well, thesickness begins, and as they
begin to, you know, get sickeverywhere.
(20:08):
I believe that that probablyturned everything off and thus
probably came the end of thedream of later in life, when I
was a grown-up, being able tomarry Cheryl Bandy Because she
was so darn cute.
But you just can't throw up onthem On the first date, even at
(20:28):
12 years old.
You know what I mean.
You can't throw up on them,even at 12 years old.
Oh, look, here comes a littlecar.
It's like Utopia.
Was it called Utopia atDisneyland?
Is that what that was called,where you could drive the cars?
Autotopia, something like that.
(20:50):
I loved that.
So, anyhow, it is a beautifulday, hello, hello, hello.
It is a beautiful day.
All the kids are having a greattime.
Let me start up my car here.
(21:12):
I usually end it with somemusic.
I don't know if I should or not, but why not?
You know what?
I think I'll just leave it atthat today.
I'll just leave it at thattoday.
No, wait a minute, let's do it.
Start it up.
All right, just do it.
I have to end with somethinghere.
Some music.
Patspeepscom.
What is this?
(21:35):
244.
Patspeeps.
244.
Stroll through William LandPark.
Memories of William Land Park.
Let's see what we would have onthe radio here.
Let's see if we can guess whatit is.
Here we go.
Oh, how long has this beengoing on?
This is, uh what.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Ace right, ace 1975, baby, it's Pat's Peeps 244.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Hopefully you'll get a chance to check out
PatsPeepscom, see what we'redoing with local businesses.
We'd love to represent you,endorse you, local mom and pops,
patspeepscom, welcoming newbusinesses every day.
Here we go.
Now you know what I think I'mgoing to do.
(22:38):
I think I'm going to go over tomy old neighborhood over here
over on Franklin.
I think I'm going to go toScott's Burger Shack.
Get me a Fat Boy Combo.
That's what I might do.
Thank you for tuning in.
(23:05):
Please check out my radio show,the Pat Walsh Show KFBK Radio
Sacramento.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Heard everywhere on your free iHeart app.
I'm a little crazy for fancypersuasion.
Don't admit that it's part of ascheme, but I can't help but
have my suspicion, cause I ain'tquite as dumb as I seem.
All you say is that we'repretending To break up and see
in this way, but there ain't anyuse in pretending it could
happen to us any day.
(23:45):
Thank you.
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