Opryland Editorial

[The Interpreter]

Sunday, 12/10/06 Rumors stir theme park buzz

By GAIL KERR

Flirting with boys who were passing by on the Skyride. A safe place for teens to go, without their parents. Your first job.

Those are the kinds of things people remember so fondly about Opryland USA. They opened more than a theme park in 1972. They built something we had in common. And that's why, like Castner-Knott, the Parthenon Nativity scene and Acme Farm Supply, people are still mourning the 1997 closing of Opryland USA.

The rides came down. The trees were cut. They paved paradise and put up a Shopryland.

So news that Gaylord Entertainment Co. might build a new theme park has Nashville buzzing. Gaylord asked to rezone 105 acres along Briley Parkway, which would allow a theme park.

And that's enough to bring back a flood of memories.

I lived in Donelson B.O.: Before Opryland. When they built it, it changed our neighborhood. It changed our city. It changed forever each person who got splashed on the Flume Zoom or snarfed down a guitar-shaped ice cream bar on a steamy summer day.

It wasn't the biggest or most elaborate theme park. It wasn't Six Flags or Disney. But it was ours.

There were must-do rituals every summer. Visit the petting zoo. Walk through the weird fun house, which used mirrors to make you feel like you were on a steep tilt. Listen to the music in the Doo Wah Diddy City area. Ride the Tin Lizzie cars that made you feel like you were really driving.

The I Hear America Singing show was the first experience many of us had with live theater. There were drinks shaped like fruit. The Timber Topper, a not-as-scary-as-the-fairgrounds roller coaster. Later, a bigger coaster was added that went upside down -- the Wabash Cannonball.

Disney had Mickey and Minnie. We had people dressed as guitars and banjos.

Our mothers were willing to leave us at the movie theater and the roller rink in Donelson. Opryland became a third place.

Oh, that wonderful Good Times Pass. It was a cheaper season ticket that allowed you in after 5 p.m. My best friend and I wore out our Good Times Passes. Our fixation centered on the rock 'n' roll band. To this day, it's not Peter Frampton I think of when I hear Baby I Love Your Way.

Our Opryland good times pretty much ended when my buddy got a job sweeping at Opryland the summer we turned 16. I couldn't imagine then or now what sounded fun about sweeping up cigarette butts during a hot Nashville summer. I got my first job, as a copy girl at The Tennessean.

We grew up and moved on, as did Nashville. But like that endless Skyride loop, Nashville's chance for a theme park has come around again.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...387/1092/NEWS01

[WooferBearATL]

WOW

That write up captured exactly what Opryland was.

Will be absolutely amazing to have it back.

[ragerunner]

If they do as good of jobs as they did on the original Opryland and Fiesta Texas this should be very good.

[RailRider]

I have a lot of expectations for any park that has the OpryLand name to it. I hope if Gaylord is going to build a new park with the OpryLand name they do it right.

Great editorial, lots of great memories there.