Very retro TR: Opryland!

[USRoadTripper]

I finally decided to get my mom's old Opryland pics and scan them today. Enjoy!

And here I am driving one of the boats in the kiddie play area. Scroll down for more photos!

Here I am in front of the main fountain in the park. My head looks funky because my party hat is blending into the water! I remember dipping my arms into this fountain plenty of times to cool off.

The jumping bags! Ahh, the jumping bags were always my very favorite thing there (well, ok, until I discovered coasters...then it was Chaos!)

And another shot of Sprained Ankle Mountain.

Here I am on top of "Sprained Ankle Mountain." I'm sure this sort of thing is now classified as "never in America" because I know I was injured quite a few times on it!

Here I am once again, only this time I'm the Trix rabbit!

And here is me behind the fiddle cutout.

The kiddie observation tower was always one of my favorite kiddie rides in the park.

Here I am with a clown on a unicycle in front of the Theater by the Lake. And OMG I have a fruity drink in my hand! I loved those! They were fruit drinks in bottles the same shape as the drink flavor. Does anyone still sell these?

As another part of the celebration, they had clowns roving around making balloon animals. Here I am with a balloon turtle on my nose.

The Barnstormer. This was before the Old Mill Scream was installed because the rafts are still floating around, and just out of view is the monkey island.

For the opening day, they gave everyone birthday hats. Ain't I cute at six years old?

1986 was Opryland's 15th birthday. This little are with the cake would sometimes have bluegrass or jazz performers playing there.

Fast forward a few years to opening day of the 1986 season. Here I am at 6 years old in the parking lot, proclaiming that I had been wanting to ride the parking tram "for years!"

Me with my mom and grandma at Opryland.

My grandma on the left, and my mom on the right, behind character cutouts of a fiddle and a dulcimer.

Aww! What an adorable baby! Though this one is kinda random just to show off how cute I was at 3 months old, it *was* taken at Opryland

Here is the Barnstormer. That's my mom (25 at the time) peeking over the red plane.

Me and my mom riding the carousel. This was taken late in the 1979 season (I am 3 months old!) on the antique carousel. This is supposedly a picture of the first time I ever rode an amusement ride!

[Nrthwnd]

Immediate reactions.

 

Julie, you were - and still are - adorable!

 

Wow, talk about like mother, like daughter, like grandmother! You were/are all theme park freaks!!! Definitely, in your genes, kid. And how nice of your parents to take pix of the trip(s) with you, and for you. Awesome!

 

And you all got yer dimples, huh?

 

Kids' Observation Tower! Koolest of the Kools!!!! Man, i wish we had something like that at our fair and/or annual exhibition. Looked great!

 

And yes, I notice there were probably a few things here and there, that nowadays just wouldn't be allowed w/o thought of legalities, blah blah blah.

 

Oh well. At least there's climbing tower/pyramids in Europe still, wink wink.

 

Excellent Retro TR Julie! Looking forward to the other pix you post.

 

(RTR? Hmmm...)

[MrMorgan]

Awesome old pics! That's definitely one sad thing about the closing of Opryland: no more "get your picture taken as a dulcimer" cut outs. The world needs more of those. hehehe

[cfc]

Aw-w-w-w . . . nice old pictures.

 

'Tis a shame that Opryland is no more. My parents came across some old photos of the family at San Jose's long-defunct Frontier Village, including one of a rather pudgy nine-year-old boy in an ever-so-adorable little cowboy hat and geeky black-rimmed glasses (aka, me). Not enough pics for a decent TR, though.

 

Chuck

[Louise]

Julie you were so cute! (Still are, obviously!) You were one of those babies who actually bore a resemblance as a little one to how you do now, if you see what I mean.

 

I remember those drinks, we used to have them here too, but I haven't seen any for years.

 

Looking forward to seeing more photos!

[pianojohn]

Thanks for the pics! I sure do miss Opryland, and until I visited Dollywood last year, I didn't think there were any parks left like it. Nice to see Dolly keeping up the tradition of lots of shows, lots of beautiful scenery, good restaurants, and a nice selection of rides.

[YoshiFan]

Great pictures, that kiddie observation tower looked cool.

 

Sesame Place has a very similar climbing mountain that was still there as of a few years ago (last time I was there).

[Hattuchili]

Awww, that is so cute, Julie! I really like retro Photo TR´s! It is nice to see how a park looked like a few years ago! Thanks for posting.

 

--Sören

[coasterdude5]

Wow, It's so creepy because I was only five, but I remember almost everything from that park!

 

We miss you Opryland!!

[USRoadTripper]

More Opryland pics, and cute pics of me as a kid! hehe

I really wish I had more pics of Opryland from when I was a teenager, but I didn't really get into photography until after the park closed. And I never took a camera when I was younger because I thought that meant that I couldn't ride the water rides.

I found a great website that tells about the history of Opryland...it can be found at http://timelines.home.insightbb.com/ol_years.htm

 

-Julie

And last but not least, the Train. Opryland had three tains...Elizabeth, Beatrice and Rachel. Elizabeth was sent to Astro World when Opryland closed...anyone know where she is now? Thanks for reading!

Me and Amy in the ball pit. Does anyone let adults into these things? It'd be great to bell flop into one of them as an adult hehe

Me and Amy on the Antique Carousel. I can't find any info on when exactly this carousel closed, but this was probably the last season for it. It was replaced with a bird show, and suppsoedly Gaylord still owns the carousel.

Me and Amy in the jumping bags. I am quite fond of this picture, considering how we are both adults now.

Me and Amy in the kiddie car ride. They have almost this exact same ride at Cedar Point! Just ask Kevin how much I freaked out when I saw it there last July

Me and Amy being goofy. See, my being goofy in theme parks isn't a new thing! I actually still have that "I *heart* Opryland" shirt that I am wearing. I couldn't bear to get ride of it, so now it's on a giant stuffed elephant I have.

Here are Amy and I again on the little boats that you "drive" in circles.

And another shot of me and Amy on the Surrey.

This is during the 1987 season. I am 7 years old and that is my 3 year old cousin Amy with me (who is 22 years old now!) We're on the Surrey, which was little buggies that were pulled by horses.

[Louise]

^ More great pics Julie. There are a few of those ballpool things over here which are for adults as well as kids, they're great fun!

[ParkTrips]

Awesome Julie!! This is one of the parks thta I most regret never being able to visit.

 

 

I miss that rides

[dj snow]

Thank you for posting these pics. Opryland was a very nice park, full of trees, high-quality shows, and Southern hospitality.

 

I think it's awful what became of it. I think a lot of people in Nashville still hold a grudge against Gaylord Entertainment for making the decision to close the park. I can't say I blame them.

[coasterdude5]

From: http://www.screamscape.com

If your a fan of the park’s railroad you might be interested to know where the locomotives will end up. Our railroad experts tell us that the 610 Limited (1967) has arrived at it’s new home in central California where it will live out it’s retirement on a 2-mile narrow gauge line at the private Santa Margarita Ranch near San Luis Obispo. It will join a few other classic engines at the Ranch: a rebuilt 1897 Porter that ran at Carowinds in the mid ‘70s, a 1922 Vulcan than ran at Wild World (now Six Flags America) and was featured in the Dr. Quinn TV series, as well as the four original passenger coaches that ran on the Disneyland Railroad from 1955 to 1974. The private ranch does open for various fundraisers and school trips throughout the year like the Pacific Coast Railroad Roundup on May 6th and 7th. You can see their website here. The other diesel locomotive from Astroworld has been sent to Six Flags over Georgia, and an older locomotive was previously sold years ago to Silverwood in the ‘80s and was later sold to a private owner in California who is restoring it.

 

Hope that answer's the train question!!

[arrowfanman]

Wow. Thanks for the nice trip report Julie!

 

We all give each other a glimpse of our lives with these Photo TRs, and I find that these retro TRs do so the most. So thanks for sharing with us!

 

-Jahan

[socalMAN123]

Great Retro Photo TR! This really brings out the feeling of those old parks that closed before I was even born!

Brent "I doubt I could even start posting Retro PTRs yet" Shenton

[Joe Cool]

Awesome old pictures!! That is sad why they closed the park didnt they close it and put a shopping mall in or something?

[USRoadTripper]

Yes, they put in a mall It's a relatively nice mall, but I've never heard anyone say that they like the mall better than they did Opryland. The kick in the pants was that Gaylord sold the mall, what, maybe two years after it was built? And it took the mall years to make as much money as Opryland made in it's last operating year! I wish I could find the link for the article I'm thinking of, but when you looked at the revenue behind it all, it was a stupid, stupid move on Gaylord's part.