It’s easy to recall many of the road trips I made as a kid with my parents, especially the ones to Florida. We vacationed in West Palm Beach for a string of summers, and the long drive from our home on the Jersey shore was made when I-95 was only an idea. Stop-and-go US Rt. 1 was the artery for the north-south traveler as some easterners may still remember.

Rt. 1 travel was like crawling when compared to the interstate in store for the east coast motorist, but the slow way, the only way I knew, suited me fine. I had just as much fun getting to Florida as being there, maybe more. I held the "ability" to make the entire trip standing up in the back of whatever boat of a family car we had, and with a wide variety of interesting things to see – Rt. 1 offered a continuous mix of country, towns, and cities – I ambled from one side window to the other like a ping-pong ball. I was constantly being told to sit down or at least slow down before I wore out the floor and fell through to the highway. This parental distraction interfered little with my looking, though – I never missed a single thing we passed. I clamored about stopping at all of the more interesting roadside stops, and Rt. 1 had scores of them. I seldom had my way on these potential "unscheduled delays," as my parents called them, but at times I'd win out after offering up an unrelenting display of enthusiasm about stopping.

One stop I did win out on, and which became a Rt. 1 regular, was an attraction for kids called Storybook Land. Storybook Land sat off the road on a wooded acre or two which sloped back up into a small valley. A number of scaled-down, film-set type buildings were scattered about in just the right places among the trees. Storybook Land was a place of magic – all of the big-named animated characters of the day from Disney and Warner Brothers were featured, with the colorful, detailed theme buildings presenting a mix of captivating static and working displays of the timeless 'toonsters. Music, taken from toon soundtracks, (including those great classical music tracks), filled the air throughout the grounds, and for that livelier touch, a troupe portrayed a few of the more popular animated stars, making for fun times and great photo opps while they roamed and mingled. The overall effect, for a cartoon-loving kid like myself, was pure imagination intoxication. I always had a wonderful time at Storybook Land – it was a five-star Rt. 1 highlight!

But . . . family road trips came to an end, I "grew up," and memories of Storybook Land went into hiding. I was no longer a Rt. 1 traveler – when I occasionally did head south I sped down that, now alive but lifeless, strip of asphalt and concrete, I-95. Sometime after my youth I traded in "slow, interesting, and fun" for "fast, dull, and boring." The places that captured my imagination as a kid on Rt. 1 were only a few short miles to the east of the interstate, but, "Out of sight – out of mind." as the cliché goes.

More than two decades passed and, after I’d settled into the Washington, DC area, I found myself heading south on Rt. 1 once again, driving through a town in Virginia called Woodbridge. Just after leaving the town proper, a few strange looking buildings, back off the road and long abandoned, immediately caught my attention, and old memories began to stir. As a kid I never connected Storybook Land with Woodbridge, VA or any other place – it was just somewhere on the way between New Jersey and Florida. I gave the unusual buildings some extra thought . . . and then it hit me. This was Storybook Land – overgrown, weather-beaten, and not much of it still standing, but Storybook Land nevertheless – one of my all-time favorite places when I was a kid. I'll be damned! I stopped and walked around for a bit, enjoying my rediscovery along with some pleasant memories of the attraction back in the open. I was glad to see that some of the attraction had survived, but also knew the little of it that remained would continue to be swallowed up by the land – wood from the small, toppled buildings turning into soil and that helping to grow new wood.

A few years later, while driving not far from Woodbridge, I decided to go over to Rt. 1 and see how Storybook Land was faring. I didn't know what I'd find, but I was surprised to see that only one building remained standing, the rest of the attraction reclaimed by trees. I soon came back with my 4X5 camera and captured the lone building on black and white film, and not a bit too soon. Within a month that curious looking building, the last trace showing that Storybook Land had ever existed, was bulldozed down and cleared away – field and trees are all that remain on that once magical site.

I wish I'd gotten another shot or two, at least a closer-up shot of the front, but on the wintery day I made the photograph I was only thinking of the one image. I sought to capture the solitary building as a natural part of the field and forest – an entry point to an enchanting world still flourishing behind it, perhaps not physically now, but flourishing just the same as a fond memory of my younger days. What I captured is my only visual tribute to Storybook Land – a place of enjoyment, adventure, imagination, and magic for myself, and I'm sure countless other kids, from the days of my youth.

    Copyright © Bill Reeves

 

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