My parents took my sister and I to see the Falls at least twice. It would have been a decent drive from Erie, PA, back in the days that you could easily travel from the US into Canada, and back, without excessive identification. I do remember the border patrols would scrutinize your cars inside and out! I wonder what they thought a mom and dad with two little girls would be trying to hide?
My memories about the Falls include:
- Going to the top of what my dad coined "The Needle," the Skylon Tower. It's a observation tower, eatery, and tourist attraction. It opened in October of 1965 so we must have been there summer of 1966. It rises 775 feet from the base of the Falls and from its windows you can see both the Toronto and Buffalo skylines as well as both the American and Horseshoe Falls. I recall eating in the world famous 360 degree Revolving Dining Room as well as shopping in the base.
- Traversing the Gorge with my father in a gondola, the Whirlpool Aero Car! This antique gondola dangles above the Niagara River a drive north of the Falls. The scariest thing I've ever done, for ten nerve-jangling minutes the gondola makes it way between two points above the Gorge. All I can remember is gripping my fathers hand and a metal bar, praying to God that if I lived through the trip, I'd NEVER do it AGAIN. I think that trip started my phobia of heights! If you look down all you see is raging black and foaming water, hundreds of feet below you…
- Touring dressed identical to my sister. That may have been because it was generally crowded and it was be easier to keep tabs on us! The popular 'outfit' those days was the 'skort,' which was a short/skirt combo made for little girls. They were fairly short, ladylike, and allowed for more freedom of action than a skirt.
- Visiting Ripley's Louis Toussaud's Waxworks, housed in an English Tudor style building.
- And of course, seeing the main attraction, the Falls itself. Standing on an observation point on the Canadian side, looking down at 150,000 gallons of water/second flowing over the falls made your heart flutter and took your breathe away! The fact that there is never a break in the action is exhausting in and of itself.
I'm sorry we never had the opportunity to take our own children there while they were growing up. Ken and I have both visited the falls, with our own parents, and his grandmother, Julia Dunnett, was actually from Ingersol, near London, Ontario, Canada, about 100 miles from the Falls. Someday we'd like to tie a trip in to visit Ingersol / Aylmer and visit the Falls together.
