Surreal Video of Canobie Lake Amusement Park

I was there on Friday!

wow, great minds think alike. We had perfect weather. Did you like the vid? I discovered that amusement park rides are not the best for tourist shots unless you have a lot of film. And it is difficult to really get high up, like they do for the TV shows. But why do that kind of photo essay, anyway? TV ads do that.

I laughed at the "quiet moment" slide

And why is that? ... We used to play operation 'tinky winky' ganging up on someone unsuspecting. But reallly we used it to play out family 'disagreements.' in a fun, laughing way. Many nights we shut down the place, riding Dodgems about 30 times. Another place I love is Storyland in New Hampshire. Went there with the kids for 10 years. My daughter and I shut down the Tea Cups at Storyland, after about 20 rides. Like early Disney.

I liked Storyland when my kids were little, now my youngest is 14 and likes the truly scary and extra dizzy rides at Canobie Lake

I don't do Coasters, I did the Polar Coaster, but I SCREAM at the Flume !! But then I'll go again. But when I go on a regular, full sized roller coaster, not only do I scream the whole way, I have screaming nightmares that wake my husband. But tiltawhirl, flume, my style.

My daughter started going on regular coasters at about 14. And the kids went on everything at Six Flags.

I also screamed on Polar Coaster and Flume

ha. I did love those. They are my speed.

You made a fabulous video.

Thank you. I wanted it to work in a 'weird' way, because everybody has been on all the same rides... yet, also, in a werid way, an Amusement park IS werid... Definitely the fun house.... and if you look at an amusement park or anything else with a 'certain slant', a 'surreal' slant....then yes, everything becomes 'surreal, where nothing is as it appears.'

That was my aim. So I guess I succeeded in my aim?

Yes, you did a wonderful job Kathryn. Very inventive.

oh so thank you so much. i am beginning to be addiccted, too. i love makikng them. Montreal series of three soul of montreal after labor day. i need a break. and the heat ohhhhh

arleen, it really is addictive, but I find very timeconsuming and tiring. your photos are superb, to begin with. i hope to do a great job with the Montreal ones, but not even going to tackle the Soul of Montreal in 3 surreal videos until after labor day. Please start sending your photos to my TRIPLE NAME CLUB. I know you are busy with kids. Also, love that photo most of all. let me know when you visit KK.

Arbus, I am curious about some of the effects I am using and seek your opinion on them. Do you like the way I have used B&W and color? I am thinking of using more color for Montreal, but using some B&W doubles to emphasize the color and also to emphasize texture in the B&W. Also, do you like the saturated color in the colored ferris wheel in the middle? and do you think the montage at the end works? I plan to use more montages... they seem to take a while to get the seamless quality just right. Am curious as to what you think I could do better...

Since I commented on this one last year, I will only say this...

Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!

My Dad worked at Canobie as a kid. On the Merry Go Round and checking hats at the ballroom!

I knew you would love this, right in your backyard. I bet your dad had a fabulous time, a child's dream job...


I have only been to one another amusement park I love so much - the one in Salt Lake, another old style park. I've been every year since 1981.

I used to love amusement park rides. Battersea Fun fAir was just across the river, but I liked it best to walk through (yes you could) in off season at dawn.
now, these old bones and joints can't take the jostling and bumping I once sought!

walking through at dawn, how romantic.

more 'trippy'! This was in the 70s, at the tail end of a trip we would take off from my flat in Royal Hospital Rd. in chelsea and walk down the Embankment to either Chelsea or Albert Bridge go through the fun fair and come over the other bridge. Cleared the head, but more often than not, wet it! lol

FUNN!!!!

i never really tripped ... with my personality, who needed drugs? I AM a drug..

on the natch!

thanks for sharing

thank you, larry.

it do look like a lot of fun - thanks for sharing

yo.

You made this? How amazing!

thank you, Jen. Easy but time consuming to get all the details right. Only my second one.

A fun "ride". The weird part is, once you're over 12, amusement parks really ARE what they seem, lol.

Thanks for posting this to The Surreal Circus! Featured.

thank you so very much, Shira,. yes I think they are rather weird, and sometimes the people, too. But the people at this one are rather normal...

Good lord, you cracked me up with your "Tea Party Ride"!

people go in their suits, obviously. way too wet for me.

Great slide show, it really captures the spirit of the park. I like the Ferris wheel shot at the end.

oh I am so glad you found this, John. I spent a long time on the Ferris wheel montage. I am going to use fade and montage shots more frequently, to give the slide show a film look and feel.

Ah yes, it is Lagoon-ish...minus the funhouse, which was taken out a couple of decades ago--much to my chagrin. I suspect it was a bit dangerous, and I miss it.

oh no no funhouse? why? that was my favorite one....... dangerous? you mean they ran into the glass? Ours has hand prints up so people won't run into the glass. maybe they didn't think aoub that at Lagoon.....

Yes I wonder how many delightful old time parks exist....

I think it was more than bumping into glass. I know firsthand of a couple of broken bones and a head injury-- Remember the tilted room and the barrel tunnel that each half spun a different direction and while you were in it those halfs would change directions, and the sky high slides (that you rode in canvas bags)? I think one of the most fun--and probably most dangerous, was the big flat disc where people piled on , then it would spin and they'd start sliding off (and into each other) until there was only one left--the winner! They had padded walls all the way around it, but that didn't prevent people from slamming into each other as that slid off, and many trying to get outside the walls were slammed into and knocked down. Ok that doesn't sound like that much fun at my age, but it was a blast in the olden days.

I don't remember that about the Fun House at all. I left in '68 and the last time I was there might have been 64. Didn't ride a sky high slide. did Merry go round, and rode the Tilt a whirl nonstop with Gay - she got sick, and rode the junior coaster nonstop with Peter.

I always liked the tilt a whirl. Those are my very young memories of the fun house, and Ron has them too, so I think they were there then. Gay's getting sick and your multiple spins on the little fire dragon with Peter must have over shadowed the things I liked best about the fun house. Do you remember the rockets that swung you out over the lake? That felt so good on a hot day. I think they've added a ride a year since you left (or nearly so) although some of them were replaced rather than added, it has definitely grown. They have a block or more of an old west town that's pretty interesting (dentist office, working ice cream store, museum, seamstress shop, etc.). The HUGE pool is now a small pool and a small water park. Well, it's been a nice nostalgic stroll through the memories.
Thanks!

It was called the Jr Coaster. never heard of a fire dragon. 1962. I did not do rockets, I loved the old town, I think. I loved the pool most of all... but not the vicious sunburns. Deb and Mari got horribly burned one year; they were very young, maybe 2 and 4 or 4 and 6, wonder if you were with us. I wonder why the huge pool became so small... maybe more have their own pools. remember swimming at Hygeia? and skating? i took swim lessons one summer and actually learned to swim underwater, tho that was the onlhy thing i could do. couldn't skate until Montreal. weak ankles.

Pony Haven's old town was very interesting. I was at GS camp in Park City in 1960 or 1961 befoe Snowbird. July and freezing, snow the week before. bad food. Left after a week.

i was always pretty picky about rides. love the round rides but not high ones. never took the rockets... disneyland was great, loved the flying mickey mouse rides, the jungle rides and the mark twain ride. last time i was at disneyland in CA was when I was with Marni and they'd just added the Matterhorn. we went on that for hours. Like the Space Mountain in Orlkando, it didn't bother me, because both were side-to-side jolting rides rather than up and down drop coasters.

So the Matterhorn was 68 I think. Or possibly earlier. But I think 68 before we left.

I remember Hygeia. Skates nowadays, if they are "attached" correctly give great ankle support and make it much easier to stay up. My swim lessons were at Ute and (oddly enough) an outdoor place called The Matterhorn. But I went swimming for fun and even swim parties at Hygeia. Sadly, it is now a long-stay hotel complex and a Lonestar Steakhouse. Classic (roller) skating isn't what it used to be either.

BTW-the rockets didn't shoot up, they were just rocket shaped cars that held about eight people each and hung horizontally from long chains. Then the center lifted and spun so the rocket cars swung in big circles over the lake. It was mild, relaxing,-- a refreshing breeze of a ride.

oh I had typed a very long comment but accidentally deleted it. more tomorrow.

Yes, you should take a nap. I'm sure no one is as entertained as we are by this thread. Nice chattin'. G'nite.

I was talking last night before I deleted this accidentally about another swim place I don't remember where or what it was called, but I seem to remember mountains in the background maybe, as I thought it might be in the foothill village area. Always loved Foothill Village. found a terrific blue paisley dress there once. But as to the swimming pool, it was medium sized with a slide, and a place for specatators to sit outside, as Barbara and my father did, reading. Peter and I swam. Piped music. Herman's Hermits. So it was a summer or two before we left. Not Hygeia. We'd gone there many times with people. But at this place, I wore a two piece, think I was 14, and slid down the slide. Oops,. my top flipped up as I went down and people laughed. forgot to consider physics. We went to the Great Salt Lake before we left, and I was 16 - we took scientific friends. I'd been in the lake face down when I was 5 (by accident, I fell in. My father said, sit.) But on this occasion, I floated out and out and out and then came back, counting. When I got to 100, I reached under to see how close to shore I was. I was in water only 18 inches deep, about 2 feet from shore. that was when I learned to float on my back. i do a great backstroke.

They used to say it was impossible to sink in the Great Salt Lake, but it is not nearly as salty as it used to be. However, in many places, you can go out a long way without it becoming very deep. Bear Lake has places like that too. If the swimming pool near the foothills was outdoors, it may have been the Matterhorn that I was mentioning. If it was indoors it may have been Ute Swim School, at the base of Mount Olympus. Magic Waters in Draper is a possibility, but I think it is new than that. But a huge pool with great slides and several heights of diving platforms, also had a quaint, old-fashioned amusement park. Do you remember Saratoga? It was on the west side of Utah Lake. They had the BEST tilt a whirl ever--and board walks and...it is all suberbs now. I think you may have gone there with us once? We used to go about once a year--so it was a special treat.

well, at 7 times saltier than the sea. . . have you tried the egg trick? to see how salty something must be to float? horrible taste, so as long as a person floats, it is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay salty.

I was thinking you would know the pool. Loved it. Outdoors, so yes ther Matterhorn. Actualy saw the Italian side of the Matterhorn in 98 near Torino, Italy, Mt. Cervinia,.....

Never went to saratoga. As you remember, my parents actually hated everything about the city and the state, except for the U... so we spent all our time there.

if I went to Saratoga, I don't remember. But i remember one time at night going somewhere with Gay Lynn and some others of us. Was that it? Maybe I ws 12 or 11 and you were what, 5? ... People always thought Gay was older because she was tall and I was small...

If we went to an amusement park that wasn't Lagoon, it must have been Saratoga, although Liberty Park had about five rides--but not memorable ones--except that the carousel is quite nice. I'll have to defer to you about our ages--because obviously, I was young. I'm glad your parents didn't prejudice you even more about Salt Lake and Utah. As you know, people come from all over the world to live, work and play here--and yes, go to school here. I realize it's changed since his time, but your dad was so rebellious against his parents "ways" that I'm not sure he gave the rest of the city/state a fair shake. There were and are some mighty fine things to see and people of all faiths and no faith with whom you can see them.

During the time our parents gew up and when I lived there, it was a vastly diffeent orld, and is considered by pretty much by the rest of the country to be one of the most backward states in the country and has always been known as the Southern State of the West. Sure it has changed, but... I live where I live for a very good reason, the most liberal stae in the union. I think it was Liberty park. Not sure.

I realize Utah is not your kind of place. But being "considered" something doesn't make it so. It was widely considered that Mormons had horns and that everyone in Utah practiced polygamy, and that didn't make it so. Utah may not have a progressive reputation (unless you're speaking of it leading in many areas of academics, ahtletics, research and development, film making, new business development, medical technology, pioneering computer graphics and simulation, cultural fesitvals, health care systems, charitable organizations, geneology, national parks and monuments...) But we were speaking of those old style parks, and there are still some remnants of those here, though technological "progress" has gotten the best of most of them.

I know, hon. I just love everything about Boston and Massachusetts, and love a lot about Montreal, and I lov Southern Utah. But I have many very bad memories of Salt Lake City and growing up there. And the politicians, just everything. I get panicky just being in SLC. If you ever come this way, you'd love Boston and MA. I sure hop you do come this way, hon. And to Montreal, too. Deb and family would love to see you.... And Mari is moving to WA state in a few years, near Vancouver Island.

I'm sorry for your bad memories. I do believe your father influenced your perception as well. My experience here, as a heathen, has been very welcoming in neighborhoods, schools, work, etc. I was in Boston when I was about twelve, and would certainly appreciate a historical tour more now. I love the northwest, and visit there every few years (just this July).
I've only crossed into Canada at Niagra Falls, so you could almost say I've never been there--and don't know when I might be able to. I vote for you three to come take a southern Utah historical road trip with me?

It is just that I know what it is to be equal but separate, to be a genuine minority. I hung out only with my parents and their coworkers. After age 12, life was no fun being an outsider in the school system in which only 1 or 2 others in the enitre grade at East High was non-LDS. Roseanne Barr was a year behind me, I never knew her, but she was LDS on Sunday and Jewish the rest of the week.

One way or another, either you all have to come this way, or we have to go your way....

Very cool video! Looks like a great place to go.

really fun....yes.... do you have old style parks where you are?

No not here Kathryn. Maybe on the west coast but I am not aware of any around here.

Oh I ws wondering if they were not that common. That is what I thought....

I miss the history of places up north.

ah yes, I bet you do, Karolyn. It is lovely up north...for that and many reasons...,I would miss it, too.

Fun fun slide show!

hallllooo peter. thank you pjs.......... more next week. 3 of montreal. have to make them first. waaaaaaaaaay kewl.

too bad I cannot hear anything on my computer though

there is no music. No sound. It is a slide show. I don't have any original music, and YouTube is very particular. Nothing copyrighted at all...

okay cool I will check it out

I knew I shouldn't have watched this. I've been putting it off; I noticed it the day you posted it. I had a feeling that those three words were going to bring all the glories, yearnings, happiness, boyancy and dreams (now far gone) from my most blessed youth cascading back: "Canobie Lake Park". Life was so veyr good then, especially for me.

Last time I was there was '73 or '74. That time my sister had brought a friend, Cindy Martin (sidenote: I was so secretly in love with Cindy, she was blonde hair blue eye beautiful) and Cindy had left her shoes at the campsite. You couldn't enter the park without footwear. I remember my mom taking off her own sandles and giving them to Cindy. She instructed my dad to take us all in and make sure we all had a great time and that she would stay in the truck. My parents were the most unselfish folks I have ever encountered and it grieves me that my sister was the only one of us four (I have 2 brothers) who really learned that lesson.

Well, my dad did take us in, got our 'tickets to ride' and then went and stood by the gate and because iot was early he had a couple hours wait until a few people started to exit and then he promptly bought the shoes off some exiting woman's feet and took them to my mom. It turned out to be such a lovely day.

Damn, KEO, I'm crying now.

aww, such a sweet story, robert.

Neat video

thanks.

Looks like a lot of fun - thanks for sharing :-)

Thanks for submitting to
The Surreal Circus.

thanks.

love the lighted Ferris wheel!

The MJ statue is surreal to say the least!

yeah and we could not find it this year. This was last year and we went yesterday; in a few days - or in a week or so - when I get some time, I will post yesterday's photos. Quite different.

Glad to have not missed it the second time around. Featured on Vicarious Vacations!

Thank you so much, Jan ~

It's fun, looking at your photographs.