Rock City '56

He's Got A Bag That's Full Of Toys...

Saw Rock City

Imaginary Friends

This very tiny (less than two inches high) yet nifty address book souvenir of someone's Great Smokey Mountains adventure has been in my possession since I was just a little thing and found it at the bottom of a box of junk on a shelf in the storeroom of my grandparent's antique shop. I was too young to appreciate the hand-painted wonder of that cover, but I did like what I saw inside- some kid previous to me had filled the pages with dinosaurs, robots and Bugaloos!

It's outsider art-

There were only a few pages that weren't already doodled on, but I filled those up quickly enough. Here's an example of my contribution to the project-

I think I manged to retain the spirit of the original artist's intent while adding a little something of my own aesthetic sensibilities to the work... namely lots of blue!

This last drawing is my favorite-

How creepy and enigmatic can you get? What the heck is that thing? A guy going up in flames? A living straw man lurching at you from the darkness? Pigpen looking for someone to hug him?

Ooh Las Vegas

Well, I spend all night with the dealer

Tryin' to get ahead

Spend all day at the Holiday Inn

Tryin' to get out of bed

Where In The World But Six Flags (Or The Castro)...

...could you ever see so much pink in one place? What's up with the pink, Six Flags Over Texas? That's too much pink! As if the background wasn't bad enough you had to go and spotlight various pink-ish things in the photographs, as well. What exactly are those pink blobby things that Jane Seymour and her toothy friend are so excited about? Why focus on the pink sky ride car when there are obviously other non-pink colored cars evident in the background? And why force your poor staff of underpaid high school students to parade around the park in pink candy striper outfits? (Although, I will admit that the cutie in the bottom right does manage to make the whole 'Gay Barbershop Quartet' look work for him.)

Was there a big sale on pink at the brochure store that day?

To add insult to my blog reader's injury... if pink had been one of the text-color options provided by Blogger then this whole post would have been in glorious "Techni-Pink Type!" Just imagine it!

Schlip! Schlap! Schlip-a-schlap avay!

This postcard was probably bought on the same Busch Gardens trip as the Bevo & Buford postcard, although it's no-where near as cool... but how could it be?

This postcard has it's own charms. It's not very often that you get to see the classic Scandinavian Fisch Schlapping Dance as performed by late '70's amusement park staff. Actually, according to the text on the back of the card these are 'Authentic German Folk Dancers" re-creating dances that are 'authentic versions of the ones seen at traditional German festivals.' Whatever... where's the beer?

A Spongeworthy Souvenir

I'd read about the semi-legendary Spongeorama of Tarpon Springs, Florida but I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd stumble upon related souvenirage in this neck of the Virginian woods. The entire town of Tarpon Springs is like "the sponge diving capital of the world" or something so this plate might actually have been originally purchased in some other place besides the lauded Spongeorama, but I'm saying that's where it came fom 'cause it's my blog and that's the way I want it to be.

The plate disturbs me a little in that the sponge diver reminds me of the ghost of Captain Cutler from 'Scooby-Doo, Where Are You' who was the second scariest ghost of them all. I won't reveal to you which ghost scared me the most as a child because my enemies would only use that information against me. All I can say is, even today ghostie #1 makes me cry a little every time I think of him.

Proving once more that the people who run thrift stores are fools, this gaudy little beauty was priced to move at one measly American dollar. I would have easily paid twice as much for it! Which is exactly what I told the little grey-haired lady behind the counter right before throwing back my head, laughing maniacally and gliding from the store in a swirl of capes and mustaches. The gals at my thrifts love me.

Bevo & Buford Do America!

I am a huge fan of Busch Gardens: The Old Williams-burg European Experience or whatever it's calling itself today. It's a classy place. I love classy places! It has roller coasters. I love roller coasters! It use to have free beer, but it cut that out before I came of age. Screw them!

Way back before the place was so classy and before they had most of the coasters they have today (but while they still had free beer. Screw them!) they also had Bevo & Buford.

Bevo & Buford were but one pair of a cast of characters that included the much more popular St. George & the Dragon (those two still put in the occasional appearance on souvenirs and kid's clothing) and a few more escapees from the Island of Misfit Mascots, each representing to the best of their abilities one of the European 'countries' that made up Busch Gardens as a whole. Buford the beaver was the official ambassador from "New France" aka "Canada" aka "Not Europe" while Bevo the fox-in-the-Robin-Hood-outfit-who-thinks-that-his ass-isn't going-to get-sued-by-the-Walt-Disney-company was, I'm assuming, from England. I'm assuming this 'cause I have no idea where Sherwood Forest is. Maybe Scotland. Whatever, it's British.

Cavorting about the park along with B & B were a frog from France (and you thought the Canadian beaver stereotype was bad) named Tallulah and some sort of a Sir Isaac Newton-like fop who's name escapes me. Somewhere within the copious archives (i.e. crap) that I've accumulated over the years I have a map of the park which lists all of these characters. When I come across it I'll be sure to update. If I was any kind of a person at all I would have found that map before I even bothered writing this post, but I really didn't feel like walking all the way upstairs and looking in the closet. Screw me!

Since they didn't have a cartoon series of their own and since their names weren't Mickey, Scooby or Bugs and since most of them were based on horrible ethnic stereotypes to begin with, these furry folks didn't remain in the park for very long. In fact, the only reason I bring up Bevo & Buford in the first place (besides as an excuse for that clever and not at all dated Beavis & Butthead spoof in the title) is because of the important place they hold in history as the first openly gay theme park mascot couple in the U.S. Of course it would take a Canadian & a European to break the boundaries of personal freedoms in America, but then again it always does. Screw us!

Buford, of course, was the bottom.