NireBryce

reality is the battlefield

the first line goes in Cohost embeds

🐥 I am not embroiled in any legal battle
🐦 other than battles that are legal 🎮

I speak to the universe and it speaks back, in it's own way.

mastodon

email: contact at breadthcharge dot net

I live on the northeast coast of the US.

'non-functional programmer'. 'far left'.

conceptual midwife.

https://cohost.org/NireBryce/post/4929459-here-s-my-five-minut

If you can see the "show contact info" dropdown below, I follow you. If you want me to, ask and I'll think about it.


PhormTheGenie
@PhormTheGenie

When I was in elementary school in the late 80s/early 90s, I recall being taken on a field trip to an amusement park. It didn't have roller coasters or carnival games. It didn't have shows or performances. In fact, it didn't even really have anything much to eat or drink or buy.

It was the WOOZ.

WOOZ stood for "Wild and Original Object with Zoom!"

So what the heck was it?


NireBryce
@NireBryce

No reports exist as to whether or not any kind of Scooby-Doo-esque situation ever occurred on the abandoned grounds.


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in reply to @PhormTheGenie's post:

Despite this particular example failing due to a lack of other attractions, there were several minigolf / fun center places that had or have similar setups, right down to the timestamp cards.

One of the innovations for the version I remember was putting lettered punches in various places in the maze to encourage you to do more than simply 'Solve' the maze.

Bonus hilarity, these now defunct "Family Fun Centers" in CA rebranded themselves as "Boomers" many years ago and the website for the few remaining locations have gems like "A great place to make kids play outside instead of playing video games" next to a drone fly-through of... an arcade.

I didn't know that they had incorporated this concept into other areas! Honestly, combining it with minigolf makes a lot of sense. And having the letter punches scattered about is a pretty cool take on it, too. I think The WOOZ had letter stamps at the checkpoints, but it was underwhelming.

Also, oh my god, rebranding as "Boomers", what.

Thank you for reading! Oh, and sure thing. Here's most of what I was using when I wasn't pulling from my memories of the visit:

Here's an LA Times article covering the opening of The WOOZ: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-08-03-fi-6719-story.html

This SFGate article is a nice retrospective, long after the fact: https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/The-history-of-the-hottest-most-ill-advised-15394648.php

Another retrospective from a Solano County newspaper: https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/solano-news/local-features/local-lifestyle-columns/the-wooz-in-sweltering-vacaville-did-not-a-maze/

This location wiki page has some banter in the comments: https://localwiki.org/vacaville/The_Wooz

That is the way to do it. I spent at least one evening at the world-famous Sunnyvale Golfland completely twisted on drugs... had my ball stolen by a small child dressed in what appeared to be a British admiral's uniform, and had to reassure myself that yes, that had in fact happened!

oof yeah as soon as i saw that first image of the place i thought the sun would be a killer. they should have given people complimentary sunhats and water at the entrance in the least