In the summer of '69, 20-year-old Larry Syverson and his 19-year-old girlfriend Judy spent a day at Disneyland in California.
Larry snapped a series of photos of Judy riding the roller coasters and exploring the park. She wore a pink A-line dress and carried a white beaded handbag, the very picture of 1960s chic.
Five decades on, Syverson and Judy, now married with four grown-up sons, rediscovered those nostalgic snapshots and took a trip back in time.
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The sepia-toned shots offer a glimpse into the early days of Disney's famous theme park. They capture Main Street, U.S.A., the iconic "It's a Small World" ride, and the original Sleeping Beauty Castle.
"When I took these photos, I never planned on sharing them," Syverson says. "It was just to remember a day with Judy and me, whereas now, looking back [...] it's kind of a nice time capsule."
A Time Capsule
In the late '60s, college student Syverson was working a summer job in Los Angeles when Judy came to visit him. They spent a day at Disneyland and also stopped by Universal Studios and the now-closed Japanese Village and Deer Park.
He captured their outings on his camera.
"I think we looked at the slides maybe once or twice, and then they got tucked away in a box," Syverson says.
He notes that the way we document our lives has changed dramatically over the past 50 years. Most college students today would post photos of a day at Disney to social media in an instant.
Case in point: there are currently 2.5 million-plus posts geotagged at Disneyland in California.
Syverson isn't on Instagram, but over the past couple of years he started posting photos of recent trips to Flickr. It was while sorting through his images on Flickr that he remembered his vintage Disney snapshots and figured people might enjoy seeing them.
"So I dug them out and posted them, and then I found the album Judy put together during the week she came to visit me," he says.
Thanks to Judy's diary, Syverson filled in more dates and details and brought his memories of that day back to life.
"I remember we were there for 15 hours, we were there from open to close, from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m., and we were busy the whole time," he recalls. The couple kept moving from one area of the park to the next, trying to see as much as they could.
Judy saved her tickets from that day in her album, and Syverson posted those to Flickr too.
"Back then, when you went in, you bought a book of tickets, and each ride cost a different ticket. Prices ranged from ten cents, from 10 cents up to 75 cents for the big rides," Syverson says. "It's funny to think you could ride something for 10 cents."
The Highlights of the Day
The young couple rode 22 attractions, including the now-classic Haunted Mansion.
"The Haunted Mansion [...] had a soft opening the day we were there, we were there on August 9, 1969. So if you wanted tickets for it, you just got in line," Syverson says. "So it was pretty exciting to be among the first on it."
He was also thrilled by "It's a Small World," a ride with a tune you simply can't get out of your head.
Syverson had tried the ride five years earlier: in 1964 he was a Boy Scout volunteer at the World's Fair in New York, where Walt Disney first unveiled the attraction.
Another favorite was the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, based on the popular 1960s film. It's no longer at Disneyland in California, it became Tarzan's Treehouse in the '90s, but versions still exist at Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris.
Syverson loved the film and was delighted to explore the treehouse.
"When I was a kid, it was the most exciting thing, I always dreamed, wouldn't it be wonderful to live in their house?" he says.
The film still holds a special place in his heart.
"Every time my grandkids from Ohio come to visit, we all sit down together and watch 'Swiss Family Robinson.' In fact, we just watched it last week with them.
It's wonderful that it's a 1960s film, and we got to see the attraction at Disneyland, and now we watch it with my grandkids. Fifty years later, and they enjoy it just as much as I do, we laugh in all the same places."
Young at Heart
For Syverson, and for many, it's that cross-generational appeal that keeps Disney from ever growing old.
The Syversons returned to the park once, in the '80s with their kids. They haven't been back since, but after uncovering the photos they decided to plan a trip.
"We're heading to Los Angeles to set off on a cruise out of Long Beach in 2020. We figured we'd go a couple of days early and really experience it as retirees [...] We're going to spend a day at Disneyland," Syverson says.
Syverson knows the attractions have changed over the decades, and he's curious to spot the differences.
"People's interests change, and they want more thrills and all that," he says, pointing to Universal Studios as an example:
"When we were there in '69, it had only been open a few years. It just gave people a chance to go and look behind the scenes and see the streets where the movies were filmed."
Even so, the couple is already mapping out their itinerary. They might even recreate a couple of their favorite photos from the 1960s.
"The attractions are still ones we can enjoy at our age [...] It's a place where you make memories, and then you can always look back on them," Syverson says. "So we're really excited to go back there. There's no end to it. It's a special place."
He's glad his photos are being enjoyed by people all over the world and that they'll leave a lasting legacy.
"When Judy and I are long gone, people will look and go, 'Oh, look at this young couple having fun at Disneyland,' that's pretty cool."
