School Organized Days and Company Picnics

[badfingerboogie]

My experiences pertain to the Santa Clara park, but this certainly could apply to both parks. Does anybody else remember school-organized days when the park would be closed for a day to the public so that schools could bus kids in for their end-of-the-year special treat/field trip? I did this for several years in elementary school, but I don't know how long the park had been doing this or if they still do.

The funny thing is that back then, I would anticipate shorter lines for the rides because the park was closed to the public. The problem was that on that day each year, they would be bussing in schools from seemingly every school in Northern California, and I think even some schools from even farther away, perhaps even out of state. And since the park would be filled with 99.9% young kids rather than normal park days when there would at least be some adults taking their kids, the waits for all of the rides were even longer and the park seemed particularly crowded.

I also remember one year that I went to a family member's company picnic at Great America. They held it in a huge sort of picnic area with lunch benches and all sorts of space for caterers, soda fountains, etc. I recall that the area was at the back of the park, but I'm not sure. Was this area there when the park opened? Is it still there?

I'm enjoying the site and the board immensely. Maybe I'm too young for nostalgia, but oh well!

[JW65]

Hi,

I still have the company picnic "packet" of information when I went to a company picnic at the Gurnee park in 1995. Glad I kept it. It was neat to have the privilege to eat and gather there. I recall being able to see the picnic area when riding the park's train. When I was younger, I always wanted to know what was going on there.

To my knowlege, the picnic grove is still in the Gurnee park. I am not sure how many years it has been there or if it was part of the original layout of the park. Interesting to know that Santa Clara has such an area as well.

[ewilson]

I used to work the schools days you mentioned. I remember because I used to get so much overtime on those days. What it was is the park would go from weekend operation only, to full 7 days a couple weeks before the schools would let out for the summer. The park was open to everyone on these weekdays. It is just that everyone was still in school so it was almost all school busses. The park had a difficult time staffing during those days as many of the employees were also in school or college at the time and we would be running on a real skeleton crew (only SJSU students who were on a different summer schedule) until people started getting out of class at about 3:00.

In the Santa Clara park from what I can remember the picnic grounds were always there from the beginning in the back by where The Edge was later built. The picnic grounds were also used for vollyball tounaments that were held between the employees of different attractions in the park during the summer at night.

[steven]

I don't know exactly when the catered picnic areas went in. At Gurnee, the picnic area that I knew was behind the flumes, Loggers Run and Yankee Clipper. The Santa Clara picnic area is behind the Eagle's Flight station, across the railroad tracks (now removed). The entrance was between Eagle's Flight and the area of the train station and The Edge, as Ed mentioned.



On the right, you can see part of a volleyball net. If you look closely behind the tree to the left of the net, you can also see the old Eli Bridge traditional Ferris wheel that operated for a short time in both parks. The building with the red flags is the Eagle's Flight station.

Steven

[badfingerboogie]

Thanks for all of the great info. My memory continues to be jogged as I read more comments.

I went to the pgathrills.com website and downloaded their current map. The picnic area is still there at the back of the park just as I remembered. I know packed away I have some brochures with maps from the 80's and 90's. It would be interesting to see a set of yearly maps to see the changes. The new map they have now is so different that I can't figure out what used to go where.

One other question maybe someone can answer: In looking at the current map, I notice that in the picnic area, there appears to be a remnant from the old "Smurf Village" theme from the 80's. Anybody else that has seen the map, is that a little smurf house there still depicted on the map? Given all of the Paramount-themed stuff, Nickelodeon, etc., I'm surprised they have left an old Smurf remnant intact. Perhaps they have little motivation to move it since few get a good look at it.

The company picnic I went to was probably around 1992 or 93 or so. I would presume that that little Smurf thing was there back then, but I can't remember for sure. It's just funny to see remnants of old park themes right in the middle of the park trying to rebrand everything as much as possible.

[JW65]

Steven,

The picture that you posted here looks like a promotional shot for MGA. Are many of the archived pictures on this site promotional shots? They are all of exceptional quality, especially considering their age.

Jeff

[JW65]

I came to the Gurnee park on a bus with my eighth grade class on a day in late spring of 1980. I have fond memories of that day.