8 replies to this topic

[29yrswithaGApass]

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Spotlight!

Comments and discussions are welcomed!

[29yrswithaGApass]

When my family and I went through the Safari for the first time in 1974 I remember being amazed at the number of animals and how close they were to our car. I can recall it took us a very long time to get through it, probably over 90 minutes. When we reached the end of the Safari it felt much longer, almost like we had just experienced a full day of exploring. All pumped up and excited from our journey, I was really excited when I realized we still had the theme park to visit!

[donald bale]

I worked there in 74 and these pictures really capture how great the park was it's first season. keeping the elephants in line was a real trip and watching the rhinos gallop across the section, stop on a dime and turn directions was an amazing sight to see. all of the animals in the park really stood out the best the first couple of years.

[29yrswithaGApass]

I worked there in 74 and these pictures really capture how great the park was it's first season.

We are happy to hear that Donald! When we filtered through our photo collection we wanted to make sure we used exclusively photos from the 1974 season in this Spotlight. That is why some of the pictures may have windows or rearview mirrors in them. Those aren't the best shots but we wanted to be authentic and also share pictures from the viewpoint of a visitor as well as a worker.

Hope this brought back some memories for you!

[donald bale]

It has, i still have a big smile on my face.

[29yrswithaGApass]

It's a amazing how much larger cars were in those days. The interiors were spacious enough so that you could walk around as a little kid and take in the Safari from all sides of a vehichle.

I remember the motorized gates being a really exciting part of the Safari. It helped build anticipation for entering the scary and dangerous sections with the man-eatting cats.

[29yrswithaGApass]

Check out this great Safari handout from 1974 that was shared with us by one of our kind readers! Too cool!

[GAcoaster]

I found it interesting that it was in French, Spanish and German. I guess they were expecting a lot of international visitors.

[grounds75]

The tigers liked to bit car tires.  I saw a bear dry himself on the hood of a VW Beetle, Beetle lost.   Elephants bumped into the cars all the time and were the first to be corralled off.

  Vinyl tops on cars in the 70’s were attached with a banana oil based glue.  You could remove and replace them with a heat gun.

  Hot day + hot banana oil glue + baboon = “ I smell a banana here somewhere, just have to keep tearing.”

  People would get out of their car in the big cat section all the time to get a better picture.  It is truly amazing that no one was ever killed in the years that the cats roamed free.