New Orleans, Louisiana: Storyland

26 fairy tale statues and buildings built by Mardi Gras float-makers. Take a ride on a slide made of flames being belched from a dragon's mouth.

It is still there and has been updated. Along with the playland and slides they also have an amusement park area with rides, carousel and train. For $20 you can ride all the rides you want for the entire day. Great for toddlers to teens, but geared more to little kids. Lots of picture opportunities in the playland. They also have a Mother Goose story time and puppet theater for the kids at certain times. Great cheap day of fun.

My friend and I went in search of this site and when we got there it was all sealed up with plywood and overgrown with weeds and all we could see were a few ceramic angels still hanging from the trees. Very creepy. Unless this was the remains of something else, I'm pretty sure Storyland is no more.

The 26 fairytale statues and buildings at Storyland were built in the 1950's by famed Mardi Gras floatmaker Blaine Kern, Jr. There are statues of Little Miss Muffett, Puss 'n Boots, Snow White, and Mother Goose (riding a giant goose hung from a tree.) There's also Hansel and Gretel's cottage, the old woman who lived in the shoe, Captain Hook's pirate ship, and the cow that jumped over the moon. By far, the most popular fixture is the big dragon slide, where you climb up the dragon's back and slide down the flames coming out of his mouth.

This is another Mother Goose type entertainment park for kids. It was made locally, probably by Mardi Gras float makers. Besides the standard Mother Goose (riding the goose, no less) there is Peter Pan (with pirate ship!) a Dragon up whose neck you climb and down whose flames you slide (FAST! Sometimes they close the slide), an old fire engine, now being restored, Old King Cole and his castle, a crooked house, The Wolf of Little Red Riding Hood in the Grandma's cottage and in drag, Anasazi the spider, Cinderella's pumpkin coach, Pinochio's whale into which you can walk, and various other items. It is next door to some middling rides which are fun for kids, including a truly beautiful antique wooden carousel which is fun for adults.(At the big park fund raisers, a lot of people get loaded and go riding on the flying horses and the little kiddie train; later they ride cabs home and the next day have to rack their sore brains to remember where they left their cars.) It doesn't cost much, parking is free, there are (kind of, anyway)clean restroom facilities, and nearby ducks, squirrels, geese, and swans to feed stale bread to. Watch out, though; in other parts of the park there are gators. Particularly the golf course. Nobody dives for the balls anymore.