Disneyland Nostalgia: You Can't Go Home Again

You Can't Go Home Again is a very interesting book written in 1940 about a man who comes home after many years and finds things are not what they once were.

Just about everyone has experienced nostalgia which for me means Disneyland in a nutshell. I can’t think of two things that go better together than these two.  

I will never forget the single greatest bit of nostalgia in my lifetime; riding the Peter Pan ride with my father for the first time. I was 7 years old, and the world was mine. It was magical, we were flying. I did not notice any of the obvious cables holding the car in the air. No, I was soaring above this world, which only got better. I was transformed, I was alive, and then it happened. Suddenly I was soaring over London at night. 

It used to look so real..

I could see tiny car lights on the streets. I wish I knew at that moment that although life has some great moments, it really does not ever get much better than that. I had no bills to worry about, house payments, a job to hold down, or anything else. My belly was fed, I felt safe, and most likely slept through the drive home from Anaheim that night.
Disnelyand is the center of the world for nostalgia, but really, what does it all mean in the end? More importantly, as an annual passholder, what am I really doing? Have I spent thousands of dollars over the years trying to chase and re-create moments like this, if not for myself but for my sons as well? If so, I should know better. Nostalgic moments happen organically and are not “created” on a whim. 

Perhaps I have unknowingly created nostalgia for my sons without even being aware?  But that’s for another time, let’s stick to Disneyland.

Yesterland is a great website, and I often love to visit it. I love to look at the pictures and information form classic rides like the Mine Car through Nature’s Wonderland. Now extinct and occupied by Big Mountain Thunder Railroad, Nature’s Wonderland was part of a dying breed of rides that were just…chill. I sound like an old fart I know. “These kids these days and all of these rollercoasters, blah, blah”. But slow rides where you can look at nature (or fake nature) just don’t get the turn styles moving enough anymore. People want bigger and faster, and it seems like it’s that way with everything. Or maybe I really am getting old?

Remnants of days gone by

I do find that I am able to catch bits of nostalgia through Disneyland but they do not last long; just a few minutes at a time. Disneyland has done a great job in particular at keeping Main Street intact. The stores, the food shops, old time music, horse carriages, just about everything there is about the same as it has always been.

But I miss the people mover, and I miss the Rocket Jets being up high, nestled into a Tomorrowland that seemed way better back then. And I miss Mine Train through Nature’s Wonderland. But time moves on I guess. And maybe, just maybe it is the new rides that will someday give the younger generation nostalgia when they look back? And thinking about it, I am okay with this.