Welcome, Little Citizens!

By C.J. Hirschfield

Given Children’s Fairyland’s prime location, whimsical setting and talented professional staff, we get pitched all the time by individuals, companies and all sorts of entities. Sometimes, as when a marijuana dispensary wanted to host a holiday party that included smoking tents, we politely turn down the request, saying it isn’t “Fairylandish,” a word we use to evoke our strong brand, which is authentic, non-cynical, playful and low tech.

But occasionally we’ll be presented with an offer we just can’t refuse, because it is so brilliantly—and obviously—Fairylandish. And that is why, on the first day of August, 20 children ages 3 to 9, from nine countries, will receive their United States citizenship papers onstage in our park.

Pokémon ... STOP?

By C.J. Hirschfield

Last week I learned about two events that at first seemed unrelated but turned out to be connected.  A teenager entered my co-worker’s yard, inadvertently letting her dog out. And at Fairyland, a parent tripped on our yellow brick road while focusing on his smartphone instead of where he was going.

What do these occurrences have in common? Both the teen and the parent were playing Pokémon GO. 

If you were on a remote island last week, you may not know about a craze that's taken over America and 26 European countries: Pokémon GO, an interactive game app for smartphones, was released on July 6. It's an updated version of the original Nintendo console game that debuted in 1996. 

With Pokémon GO, your phone becomes a portal to the Pokémon world, where you can see animated Pokémon in your neighborhood or other public spaces (and also private ones). When you "capture" them, you can then take them to other designated spaces that serve as "gyms," where you can train them to fight other Pokémon for points.

Without our knowledge or approval, the game’s creators designated six Poké stops in Children’s Fairyland: Noah’s Ark, the Humpty Dumpty Wall, Anansi’s Web (our Ferris wheel), a horse in our Old West Junction, the bong tree in the Owl and the Pussycat set, and Tweedledee. A Pokémon gym is located just outside our gates, at Lakeside Park’s bandstand.

Putt 'er Here!

By C.J. Hirschfield

I love reading Funworld Magazine, the official publication of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. It was there that I learned that the enduring game of miniature golf will be celebrating its centennial this year. That’s right: 100 years of windmills, clowns, tubes, ramps, chutes, kitsch and Americana.

You may not know that Fairyland’s original sets, designed in 1950 by architect William Russell Everritt, were widely copied by developers of mini-golf courses in the 1950s and 1960s. Storybook theme parks and mini-golf courses both proliferated in the postwar years, as families sought out affordable places to have fun together.

Filmmaker and mini-golfer Amanda Kulkoski. Favorite course obstacle: the "Pachinko hole."

Amanda Kulkoski fell in love with the sport in the 1980s, when she was growing up. So it wasn’t surprising that her first job in her hometown of Green Bay, Wis., was at the local miniature golf course. She’d sweep the holes, move boulders to alter a course, hand out balls, sell soft-serve ice cream and clean the bathrooms.

“I loved to play – still do,” she says.

My Little Library

I always respond personally to the customer complaints we receive at Fairyland. We learn a lot from our guests, and we often translate their suggestions into reality.

But a note we received last week included a slew of complaints, one of which really touched a nerve. I reproduce it here verbatim:

“You should have a really cool candy shop where the library is who wants to read a book in Fairyland.”

The guest was referring to our reading room, lovingly curated by Oakland public librarians. It’s a sweet, quiet space where a kid can sit on an adult’s lap or on a giant stuffed bear and enjoy the pleasures of books and reading.

The Children’s Fairyland Reading Room offers kids and parents a chance to relax and enjoy books. 

It's a Hard Hat Life

Not long ago, Bay Area Children’s Theatre’s intrepid executive director, Nina Meehan, made an announcement after an Oakland performance: The company’s next show — to be performed at Children’s Fairyland — would be based on the New York Times bestselling children’s picture book “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site,” by Sherri Duskey Rinker.  The New York Times Book Review said the story “has the ‘why hasn’t anyone thought of it before’ premise of marrying truck book and bedtime story.”

In the audience that day was company patron Becky Bullard, whose father-in-law was accompanying her and his grandchildren to the show. After the show, Becky approached the box office with a bit of news that was to have delightful consequences for the “Construction Site” production, which opened to huge crowds last weekend.

“We love the Fairyland shows,” Becky said, referring to the summer pre-kindergarten performances that take place at our park. “And my father-in-law runs the company that invented the hard hat. Do you need any?”

The hardhats featured in “Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site” were donated by Bullard Company in Kentucky.  Photo: Melissa Nigro

Free 'Happy Birthday'!

We’re reprinting this column from 2013, about the fight to release the ubiquitous “Happy Birthday” song, along with an exciting update—“a real Perry Mason moment,” as Oakland attorney Daniel Schacht puts it.

Schacht is a partner in Donahue Fitzgerald, the local law firm (known as Donahue Gallagher Woods until 2014) that has been working to bring the song into the public domain.

A birthday party at Fairyland in 1953.

Permanent Superfan

Chris Kelley has fond memories of spending time at his grandma’s house in the 1970s. Young Chris and his two sisters loved going fishing near her house in Alameda and visiting locomotives at the Harrison Railroad Park on 7th Street in Oakland (now long gone).

But Chris's very favorite thing to do was to open her utility drawer, grab a Children’s Fairyland Magic Key (she had many) and persuade her to take him to his favorite place, where the key unlocked much more than just a talking Storybook Box.

Chris moved to Texas in 1994, when he was 24. His grandmother is gone now. But the memories they shared live on, and part of his heart always remained in Oakland. At Fairyland.

Last week he returned to Fairyland with his entire family: his wife, their four kids (ages 10 to 19) and his son’s girlfriend. Also along for the visit was a stunning tattooed image on one of Chris's arms. It depicts our iconic Willie the Whale figure biting at a fishhook shaped like a Magic Key.

Fairyland superfan Chris Kelley shows off the tattoo that celebrates his lifelong love of the park.