The Great Train Trip-part the Sixteenth

There is nothing like some notes from your younger self to jog your somewhat foggy memory. I looking at the “trip diary” from 1954, I see that I am interested in the mechanics of the train, on-time status and what happened when the train stopped any where. Some times I wish that my younger self was a better note taker and kept track of other things that he had see and did. There are a lot of gaps in the information. One thing that I do remember was coming across the edge of the Mojave Desert at Needles, CA. In fact it made an impression on me each time I have crossed it. It is possibly the most desolate place I have seen and strangely, one of the more beautiful, especially with the sun just coming up over the mountains in the east.  According to the time table the train arrived at the Raymond street Depot in Pasadena at about 6:40 which is pretty early in the morning.

From now on I am in the dark about what we did and when we did it. As mentioned before my Uncle was on a restricted budget and so we stayed at the Pasadena YMCA. He was a “joiner”, like many of his generation, he belonged to almost any fraternal organization that existed. Elks, Moose, Eagles, etc. He also made his home at the “Y” for several years, so our staying at the Pasadena Y was not so unusual and not a hard ship as it was very well kept. ( and still is.) It also gave us a central headquarters in which to explore both Pasadena and Los Angeles.  Now I am not sure in what order we did things, but I do remember going to the Huntington Library to see “Blue Boy” and “Pinky” among other things and to Forest Lawn, ( as Johnny Carson called it “the “Disneyland for the Dead!”) Where there is a stained glass window of the “Last Supper” and a reproduction of Michelangelo’s “David” ( Although it is in some kind of white material that did not age well and because of the pollution in the air was showing its age.)

Of course, the big event was the tour of the Disney studio! I dutifully called the studio as instructed and we were given our time and day of the tour. We took a bus out to the studio in Burbank. We arrived at the gate and we were greeted by our tour guide. She was a very nice young woman, who I gather when she was not giving tours was a member of the “paint department.” Our group was small and I was the youngest member.  If memory serves we went through the animation department, paint and then got to see the animation equipment, plus the invention that made Disney films Disney, the multi-plane camera! From there we toured the sound effects area and the music studio. We also got to see the administration wing and were disappointed to hear that we had missed Walt by 5 minutes as he had just left to go out and look at the new Disney park being built in Anaheim! Then we went through the sound stages where the set for “20,000 leagues under the sea” was still up. And in another where the interior sets for “Dragnet”were.  Outside of the sound stages were the “live sets” where Dragnet and some the Disneyland shows were filmed. ( the only activity that day was the “green-men” watering the lawns!)  Although, I suspect we were not supposed to see this, we did get to look over a three dimensional plan of the proposed Disney land that was out in a back lot. All in all it was a heck of a tour and I was duly impressed by the “House that the Mouse built!”

(California Dreamin’)