If you grew up in New England any time in the last 50 years or so, there’s a pretty high likelihood that you paid at least one visit to Story Land in Glen, NH during the summers of your childhood. The theme park has been a fixture of New England vacationeers since 1953, predating Disneyland itself by a couple of years. I first visited Story Land when I was about 10, if I recall correctly — a little old for a park that’s squarely aimed at the younger kids, and so I only went a couple of times.
We took Charlotte there for the first time in 2004, not too long after my heart surgery. Not much had changed in the 30 years since the last time I had visited, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. There were a few new rides and one whole section of the park that was a recent addition (plus obvious signs that there were more additions to come), but the basic attractions were all still there. The one of greatest import to Charlotte that summer was Cinderella’s castle. She was in the full throes of her Disney Princess phase that summer and the ONLY thing in the park that she wanted anything to do with was the castle and seeing Cinderella “in person”.
Though we did visit one other time, the group consensus at our house is that Story Land is pretty much a been-there-done-that for us, and not in the same league of cherished family traditions as York Beach. Nevertheless, I was completely intrigued and fascinated by this post at The Smart Set by contributor Meg Favreau. She worked at Story Land as a teenager and was one of the girls who got to be Cinderella. She doesn’t say what year her story took place, but she talks about one of the newer attractions and mentions the Internet, so it stands to reason that it was within the last 10-12 years. I have always wondered what it was like to have a summer job at an amusement park, so that alone would have been enough to recommend this article to you, but the tie-in to Story Land AND the fact that she was Cinderella make it a must.
SPOILER: Being Cinderella isn’t exactly a fairy tale.
