Wowee, Don’t Shut Down The Gayway
February 1st, 2008 @ 1:02 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure
We all know that Seattle Center is in pretty pitiful shape these days and has been for a number of years. Topping off the decay is Fun Forest, which is likely to close next year. It wasn’t always this depressing, though. Case in point, this advertisement for the Gayway (which would later become Fun Forest) from the official 1962 World’s Fair souvenir program. Check out the wonderfully brilliant and manipulative nostalgia driven marketing, pretty much forcing dad to remember the good old days and take the kid to the Gayway for some rides and ice cream. That copy writer definitely deserved a raise. Click on the images for larger views.
Grownups don’t seem to understand. About the Gayway, I mean, and what it is to a kid. It’s like a great big magnet. Just standing outside waiting to go in is a shivery feeling.
All those things, must be a million of ‘em. All those places and rides and games. They look like little funny houses. Boy, that Space Wheel sure is high; I betcha can see clear over the world from the top.
I wonder if grown-ups hear the same things kids do… the special sound the Gayway has. If I listen hard, I can hear the whirring rides and the screams and the buzzing people always make.
Coasting downhill on a bike is fun. But, wowee, the Wild Mouse is faster and the hill is steeper and your stomach sinks when you hit a bump. That Calypso — you swing way out and lose your breath and feel like you’re flying.
My dad says there were rides in the amusement parks when he was a kid. I don’t guess there’s much difference between them and the Gayway. But I wonder if he remembers good enough to really understand. About the Gayway, I mean. It sure would be swell if he did. Because then he’d go with me on all the rides.
All those things, must be a million of ‘em. All those places and rides and games. They look like little funny houses. Boy, that Space Wheel sure is high; I betcha can see clear over the world from the top.
I wonder if grown-ups hear the same things kids do… the special sound the Gayway has. If I listen hard, I can hear the whirring rides and the screams and the buzzing people always make.
Coasting downhill on a bike is fun. But, wowee, the Wild Mouse is faster and the hill is steeper and your stomach sinks when you hit a bump. That Calypso — you swing way out and lose your breath and feel like you’re flying.
My dad says there were rides in the amusement parks when he was a kid. I don’t guess there’s much difference between them and the Gayway. But I wonder if he remembers good enough to really understand. About the Gayway, I mean. It sure would be swell if he did. Because then he’d go with me on all the rides.
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| Gayway Advertisement. Official Souvenir Program, Seattle World’s Fair 1962. |
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| Gayway Advertisement. Official Souvenir Program, Seattle World’s Fair 1962. |
February 1st, 2008 @ 8:52 am
I, as well, continue to get that “shivery feeling.” Medications don’t seem to help. Psychological care has done very little. Hypnosis, sadly, was unsuccessful. All I needed, really, was a red balloon and an over-priced ice cream cone.
February 1st, 2008 @ 4:18 pm
I wonder at what point “Gayway” stopped being a viable name for an amusement park?
February 1st, 2008 @ 4:26 pm
And will the same fate befall “Fun Forest”?
February 3rd, 2008 @ 8:31 am
They’re tearing it all down. Plans are being drawn up for something undoubtedly pointless, stupid, and expensive. It’ll probably have a Starbucks in it. But they already ruined the Fun Forest (the name was changed really early, I remember Fun Forest from 1965) when they tore out half of it for the EMP — what an embarrassment that is. I remember the Wild Mouse; it was one of the highlights of my childhood, and even when we were just driving past I’d look at it longingly.
February 4th, 2008 @ 5:08 pm
Shipley, they should give you the same psychiatric evaluation they gave Britney Spears.