 My
family and I stayed at the Fantasy Farm Motel for about a month in the
summer of 1966. My father worked for Boeing, and was transferred to
Middletown to be a supplier representative to Aeronica. He drove from
Seattle, where we lived at the time, to Middletown in a 1955
Studebaker President. My father remembers Mr. Streifthau and his wife,
who ran the motel.
I was 7 years old and had just completed first grade in Seattle. My mother, my 5 year old brother Bill and I traveled by train to join my dad after school let out. It was a warm and beautiful summer that year, and we found Fantasy Farm lived up to its name. It was truly a child's fantasy! My mother used to let us kids walk to the park by ourselves. We felt so grown up, and Mom felt perfectly safe in letting us go! We played all day while my dad was at work. My brother remembers buying toys at the gift shop. I remember my dad and brother on the Car Boulevard "driving" an antique car, and a pedal car train. It seems like there were bumper cars as well. I had my first corn dog at Fantasy Farm It is sad that the park had to close, but I am glad the motel remains open, and that many of the rides found new homes. I guess the bar was raised with the mega-parks and their multi million dollar roller coasters, but for $50 admission prices, they should be great! Fantasy Farm was an affordable place where an average family could "do it all" at a reasonable price. Too bad the market doesn't support that kind of place today. |