Barbara Hart Radisavljevic
When I was a child, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, used to really be a berry farm. My extended family used to visit the Chicken House for dinner together about one Sunday a month and then walk around Ghost Town. Ghost Town was one of the attractions built to occupy those who waited in the long line for a chicken dinner. That’s me with my mom sometime around 1948. We are standing in front of a rose garden. Behind us is what I think is the line of people waiting for their chicken dinner.
You can see how much fashions and customs have changed since then. Mom and I are both wearing gloves and hats. It may have been Easter Sunday, but I doubt it. We usually spent Easter at Cousin Edna’s house in Long Beach, with more extended family. There was always an Easter basket for me or Easter egg hunt in her backyard on that day. Many women and girls still wore gloves as part of dressing up to go to church back then.
Back in the day, there was no admission fee to get into Knott’s Berry Farm. The attractions like the gold mine, the volcano, and Ghost Town itself were intended to make money by keeping people occupied so they wouldn’t leave and find somewhere else to eat.
Probably the most popular attraction in Ghost Town was Sad Eye Joe, who never got out of the Ghost Town Jail during the years I was growing up. He was a real hit with adults, who would bring unsuspecting guests to visit Joe. They were amazed when the prisoner knew enough about them to make pretty personal comments and ask appropriate questions. But he didn’t do that unless a friend who knew a bit about you took you to visit the jail. My dad loved taking out-of-town visitors there.
<a data-snax-placeholder="Source" class="snax-figure-source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knott%27s_Ghost_Town.jpg#" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knott%27s_Ghost_Town.jpg#</a>
Later other attractions, for which there was a small charge, were added. One of the most popular, added in 1952, was the train ride around the grounds on the Calico Railroad. Robbers always boarded the train, shooting as they went, and that robbery– not the scenery — was the main reason people rode the train. The robbers always scared me a bit.
People also enjoyed panning for real gold in the mine. You paid for that, and it about covered the gold you could take home if you found any. I never did.
One of my most vivid memories is of the free three-minute show at the Wagon Train Panorama. It vividly showed the hardships of a family traveling west by covered wagon. It always drew me right in, and I watched it on many different visits. That’s what happens when there are two school teachers in your family.
Later, when I was older, more sophisticated attractions with fees were added. One was the Haunted Shack (1954), a place of optical illusions that made the old building seem haunted. I remember the lagoon, the California Mission Trail around it, and the Art Glow Studio at its edge. Those were there when I was in high school, and my boyfriend and I spent many a Friday or Saturday night just walking around there.
One of my favorite attractions added during my high school years was the seal pond across from Old MacDonald’s Farm. I loved watching seals, and I could have spent my entire visit just standing there feeding them. One old bull made a real nuisance of himself leaping in front of the other seals to seal the food that was being tossed in their direction before they could. Naturally, he was the fattest seal. And was he ever loud!
Have you ever been to Knott’s Berry Farm? What year did you go? What were your favorite attractions? Did Sad Eye Joe ever talk to you? Did you ever eat in the Chicken House?
The photo of Ghost Town carries Creative Commons License 2.0.
Cool vintage photos. I heart all things vintage. Thanks for sharing these pics.
It’s a shame digital cameras hadn’t been invented yet when I was in high school and college. I have no photos to use for anything I write about those years unless I scan them. And in the days of film, we usually only took photos of momentous occasions — not everyday life and activities and places we saw every day.
Lovely post. Never seen anything much of america, but we used to pick our own strawberries in late 1950s- early 1970s. I grow some of those and raspberries.
Love the places you showed us. Thanks
Thanks for coming to visit California through my post.
I have never been to Knott’s Berry Farm but it would be something I would put into my bucket list.
I’m not sure I’d want to go to the more modern version, but I sure enjoyed the way it used to be.
We lost most of our family pictures from the 40’s and 50’s. I have some, but not all of them. Sad. But these are amazing!!!
So sad you lost all those photos. I’m thankful I had so many. Of course, I didn’t take the one of Ghost Town, but I did credit the source.
It happens. I have more than 40,000 starting with 50 movies from 1948 to 1974. Plus I have thousands of pcitures starting in 1958 so I still have a lot, just not the oldest ones.
I wish I could afford to have the old home movies my elderly cousin took when she first came to California in the twenties or thirties.
It can be very expensive to do that, I wouldn’t have in fact knowing now what it cost me, but having them to share is something I think my grandfather would have wanted.
I do know that the quality of the home movies isn’t good anymore. Many are almost antiques. I’m not even sure they can be transferred anymore. And I know it would cost a fortune. At least photos can be scanned.
They can actually enhance the film image as they scan it. I would say 90% of the film we scanned turned out good or better.
My favorite jelly was the boysenberry : D
Would you believe I didn’t like boysenberries until I grew up? I didn’t like anything with seeds.
They did start making the seedless at one time. Remember the syrups? That was so good.
I only found them as an adult.
Awesome Barbara! I love the photograph. The story about how gloves were still worn. I was born in 62 and by that time no one wore them. The first time I went to knox berry farm was in the early 70, but still remember it clearly. I haven’t been since then. It sure has changed.
I think here in California we stopped wearing gloves before they stopped wearing them back east. Where weather is cold, there may be a good reason for wearing them. But here there was no real reason except fashion.
Yes, probably so. Real rebels out here right?
Definitely. I hope we won’t start the next civil war.
Ah geeze, true.. sighs.
A lovely photo with a great narrative 🙂
Thank you. It was fun going back through memory lane.
With Barbara photos, they have some melancholy and have the scent of some wonderful times. Beautiful.
Thank you. I’m so grateful one of my aunts was really into photography. She even had her own darkroom. I may have been the most photographed child outside of Hollywood before I was ten.
a wonderful post, remembering childhood and nice memories…
Thank you. It’s been fun remembering.
Nice post!Beautiful!
Thank you for visiting and reading my post.
Memories are funny things aren’t they.
They are. Especially senior memories.
This was a nice little visit to an earlier time. Well done.
When I looked for information online to confirm my dates when certain attractions were added, I was surprised to see how bad my memory was and also the attractions I never personally saw when I was there. Or maybe they were and I just remember the ones I cared about.