Children’s Fairyland in Oakland, CA has the distinction of being the nation’s first theme park catered to families and kids. Nestled into Oakland’s, scenic jewel, Lake Merritt, you have to walk through the tiny shoe house, which the little old lady used to live in, to gain entrance into the magical land of nursery ryhmes, mazes, slides, and puppet shows. The park’s Open Storybook Puppet Theater is the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States. Fairyland which was built in 1950, was visited often by Walt Disney as he devised plans for Disneyland. One of the special innovations at Fairyland were talking books which were operated with a maigic key.
There are so many fond memories of fun times I enjoyed at Fairyland as a kid. My mother threw one of my birthday parties there and it was fantastic. There was a labrynth, a huge slide, a train that took you around the perimeter of the park, nursery rhymes, and a puppet show. I still remember the joy of turning that magic key anticipating the story that was going to come out of the talking box. What more fun could a 6 year old kid in the pre-internet, pre-Ipod days ask for? Sometimes when I think of those times, I would not mind revisiting them because everything was perfect. Unfortunately, I’m now too tall to fit through the little old ladies shoe.
View Fairyland here. For those who’ve ever been there, please share your memories.
