A BLAST FROM THE PAST ... ADVENTURE TOWN

BING AND FRECKLES

We are heading up to the 1000 Islands on the St Lawrence Seaway and my childhood memories are flooding back on me.   The 1000 Islands stand out in my memory for  important reasons….. BING and FRECKLES.

OUR HORSES

My father, brother Skip who was twelve years older than me, and my grandfather (Mom’s dad) loved horses.  I was a little girl, about four years old, and what little girl doesn’t love horses.  Mom was busy with John who was a baby so didn’t participate so much.

We had three horses, my Dad’s horse was an Appaloosa named Freckles, Skip’s horse was a Quarter horse named Bing and I had a Painted named Bonny.  Bonny followed Bing everywhere and Bing followed Freckles so you get the pecking order.

My Dad and I rode all the time.  My brother Skip had so many blue ribbons that one wall in his bedroom was covered with them.  We all rode in horse shows and I started to win my share of ribbons as a little girl.  I believe Bing was a great barrel racer and Bonny was coming along great.

Skip went off to join the Army and was sent to Korea.  When he came back he could no longer ride horses like he used to.  My Dad was on the road all the time.  He sold hydraulic cranes for Grove and his  territory was Toronto, Canada to Miami, FL.  His office was in Chicago and we lived in Connecticut.   He was gone three weeks out of four.

Eventually it became evident that having the horses was more of a burden to my father than a pleasure so Bing and Freckles were sent to Adventure Town.  I vaguely remember that one of the owners of Adventure Town was a friend of my Dad’s.  

So…… our many of our vacations were spent in the 1000 Islands region staying at a resort and visiting our two horses while they participated in the Train Robbery Shows.

I goggled Adventure Town and came up with a website.  In addition, there were pictures of horses participating in the Great Train Robbery  and they look an awful lot like the horses we had.

According to the website…..  Adventure Town was a wild west theme park located in Alexandria Bay, NY.  It opened in the summer of 1955 and closed Labor Day 1961.  The park had stage coaches, a steam locomotive, stunt shows, Indian Village and its own lake.  The project was done by Bud Hebert and George Clark owners of the Edgewood Resort Hotel and international speedway (this may be where we stayed). 

These were black and white photos that I believe have been colorized as they were probably taken in the late 1950's.  The white horse looks like Freckles the Appaloosa and the brown horse looks like Bing our Quarter horse.

What a blast from the past!!!!!   I  have a feeling this whole trip will be a “blast from my past”.