THE EDEN VALLEY STORY (A 40TH ANNIVERSARY SERIES)
as told by Bette Lou Higgins, Artistic Director

PART 6

And so our first season survived the drought, the flood, and the outhouse/dressing room! The audiences enjoyed the program and the Park Staff decided to proceed with plans for version 2 for the following summer! Hurray!

Of course, one of the first items on the “things to do next year” list was find a new place! A place with good parking, trees, real bathrooms and dressing rooms. And one other item showed up from the previous summer -- an indoor option for the show to go on during bad weather!

At the end of the search, we chose the Happy Days center on Rt. 303. It was in an easy-access location right on Rt 303 (a main street in the area) and included a large WPA log-cabin style building with real restrooms and an upstairs loft that could be used as dressing rooms. The main hall in the building would be usable as an indoor performance space in bad weather. Outside there was a large open area trimmed with large trees to set up the village and there was a large parking lot. Now the parking area was actually across the street from the site, which, under ordinary circumstances would have been a disadvantage, but in this case the way to get across the street was through a TUNNEL that went under the street! It was immediately dubbed the TIME TUNNEL and the kids loved it!

All was right in the 19th century AND the 20th century!

	The Entrance to Johnnycake Village at Happy Days, 1978
A Quilting Bee
	John Houser as Governor Ethan Allan Brown
Jackie Chesney as Elizabeth Mills

To be continued ...