Memories of
Disneyland® 1955

In 1955 something very special came to California...it was so exciting, something that we had never seen before a theme
park, “Disneyland” had opened!

My older brother went the first day it was open to the general public. He was so excited. He took the bus there and went
by himself.  The ride probably took something like 2 hours as we lived in the San Fernando Valley.  He took photos and
developed them himself.   He did not have a good camera, jut a simple Brownie. So they are not the best quality. They
will give you an idea of what “Disneyland” was like when it was newly opened.

I remember watching the updates about the park being built on television.  I was a big “Mickey Mouse Club” fan (the
original version).  It was exciting the day Walt Disney cut the ribbon and Disneyland was officially open.  

One time when we went to Disneyland my older brother lost our tickets in "Injun Joe's" cave. I was mad because he
insisted on carrying our tickets (older brothers, ugh).   He thought we would lose them.  Well, they fell out of his pocket
on the way through the cave.  Weird thing is he was way ahead of us and I saw someone find some tickets right in front
of me, little did I know they were our tickets.  I was so mad at him.  We did not have the money to go on many rides
after paying for the original ticket booklets.  Our parents said they would meet us at a certain time, just before leaving
for the day.  So we had to use what little money we had to go any other rides.

Then when I had children of my own in the 1960s I took them to Disneyland.  The company I worked for rented out the
entire park for an evening every year.  It only cost $2 and we had access to every ride.  Sometimes the kids would want
to ride more than once, we did not have long lines, since the park was only employees and their family members.  They
grew up on Disney as I did and still to this day love going to the parks.  

I remember like it was yesterday, the first time I went to Disneyland.  I could not believe my eyes it was like a dream
world.  The worst thing back then was the old A, B, C, D and E tickets.  The best rides were always an "E" ticket.  The
ticket books you bought usually would only have (if I remember correctly one "E" ticket).  There were lots of "A"
tickets.  The “D” tickets were mostly for Fantasyland rides, if my memory serves me right.  I probably still have some
"A" tickets somewhere in one of my boxes in storage.   

A lot of these rides from 1955, no longer exist and many have changed.  Some of the rides I remember are the: Horse-
drawn Trolleys, Main Street Arcade, Railroad (which changed a lot), Dumbo's Flying Elephants, the Carrousel, Mad Tea
Party, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan ride, Autopia, Rocket to the Moon, the submarine ride, The Golden Horseshoe
Revue (it was a show not a ride), Mark Twain Riverboat, Mike Fink Keel Boats and of course the Jungle Cruise in
Adventureland (this ride has had major changes from the original ride over the years).