Florida is one of those states that still has a lot of remnants of roadside kitsch. Back during Memorial Day weekend, Phil and I headed to Orlando. Central Florida was getting plenty of attention for the debut of Harry Potter World at Universal Studios. All the Harry Potter you can stand till you puke! I was back home and dragging Phil and the family to a different park: Silver Springs.
“It’s not really a theme-park per se,” I said, trying to describe to Phil the place we had frequented as kids because it, and its sister park, Weeki Wachee Springs, were really the only kind of “theme park” that most of my grandparents’ friends and relatives could really tolerate, not really being the type for throw-up thrill rides anymore. The bank that Grandpa worked for offered their employees discount packages to different theme parks because a few were owned under one company, so my brother and I enjoyed the best of both worlds: places like Silver Springs and the more kid-oriented water parks and places like Sea World.
They’ve officially slapped a rather snoozey label on the place, calling it a Nature Theme Park. And snoozey is probably the way it sounds to people as they drive past screaming kids splashing on the slides at neighboring Wild Waters to get there. More like a historic park combined with a free-roaming zoo, it’s one of Florida’s oldest tourist attractions. One of those places that have been around since before the turn of the last century that served as the vacation destinations of northern nobility. Its neighbor park, Weeki Wachee, boasts a real underwater mermaid show that has been around since the late 40s. Silver Springs centerpiece are the historic glass bottom boats. Passengers sit around a rectangular opening fitted with a piece of Plexiglas in the bottom that allows them to view the springs beneath as they pass over them.
Chug a lug.
Its age makes it a sort of revered landmark. But, as was the case with Weeki Wachee, who’s underwater mermaid show has been around since the late 40s, Silver Springs faced the risk of becoming another extinct attraction. Weeki Wachee was at least able to generate national headlines because the novelty made it attractive to potential private investors. Eventually, both were absorbed by the state and preserved as part of the state park system.
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