As I mentioned in my introductory post, despite being a fantasy, the places in QUEST FOR THE ROSE are all real, although some of then, like the theme park calked Wooded Wonderland, which stood on the shores of Beaver Lake in Victoria, B.C., no longer exist.
I will give you some historical data on these places, as they were certainly inspirational to the mind of a young child and imprinted themselves of my fledgling writer's brain...
WOODED WONDERLAND
In 1962 (year I was born) a children's fairytale theme park was opened on the shores of Victoria's Beaver Lake. Owned by a family called Pettersen, the statues within were sculpted by a Hungarian artists, Elek Imredy. Although colourful, his statues were not cutesy Disneyfied images--they were far more folkloric, sometimes serious, sometimes as is the case of Red Riding Hood's wolf, quite sinister.
At the front of the park was a massive figure of Humpty Dumpty...in fact, there were TWO Humpty Dumpties. The first was replaced because his expression was said to be too sinister and frightening for the little kiddies to endure!
The turnstile was composed of giant 'books' and beyond that a series of trails took you are past Little Boy Blue, the Three Bears, Jack and Jill, the Old Woman in the Shoe and all your other favourite fairytale characters.
My favourite display was of Hickory Dickory Dock. This was a large clock, which had live mice inside. If you put in a coin the mice would come up and run up and down inside the clock. It does slightly fill me with horror today, though, as I am guessing the coins falling onto the mice was what made them run. Not very humane...but it was the 60's.
Behind the clock was a pond which had a mill complete with working weell. In the centre of the millpond was a little island with two stones on them, one long, one fat. They had faces painted on them and as a very little girl, I imagined them coming to life. This scene is described EXACTLY in QUEST FOR THE ROSE when the stones do come to life to save the heroine!
Years later, in the early 70's, long after the park had closed my friend Nina and I came to the lake on an Easter Egg hunt. We got lost and stumbled onto a barbed wire fence, much broken by local teens. This was surrounding the old site of Wooded Wonderland. Naturally we went to explore. It was eerie yet cool! Most of the figurines had been removed but the cottages and foundations were still there, as was the pool with its two grinning stones. At the end ofthe park, kids were swinging from the trees on a pulleyline that had been left up in the branches; not for me and pretty chancy without supervision...but hey, health and safety wasn't a big deal in the 70's!
The Pettersens also had a similar theme park in Washington state and apparently many of the figures from that one still survive and are in storage. I have heard that all that remains of Wooded Wonderland today is the little shallow pond. If I ever get back there again, might have to do a bit of adventuring....
(I have also heard the Eggman (local name for humpty) and the books still exiusts, hidden away on private property in Victoria)
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ReplyDeleteHi! I have talked to Petterson and I'm actually trying to restore Never Never Land (the Washington park). Humpty Dumpty is still stored, the books have been demolished. Luckily the company that designed the figures is still in business so this is possible that it will actually come back. At least the Washington park.
ReplyDeleteThe Humpty Dumpty that you showed was from Never Never Land Washington by the way. He sat on top of the entrance.
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