In the early 80's I worked at Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA while I was going to college. In the summer of 1983 Knott's opened Camp Snoopy, after Knotts made a deal with Charles Schultz, making Snoopy the official mascot of the park, and Knott's first new children's area, Camp Snoopy, opened that summer, after an intense amount of preparation.
Knotts moved a large portion of their most experienced personnel to Camp Snoopy for the opening, to ensure as smooth as possible of an opening. And one of the things I'll always remember about my time working at KBF was the many celebs and recognizable people that visited the park.
And in those first 2 summers of Camp Snoopy's existence, Ron Howard was constantly bringing his little kids to Camp Snoopy.
Howard was great. He'd be there with his daughter, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, and he'd be standing there at the exit of whatever ride little Bryce wanted to go on, and we'd let her in through the exit, so she could go right on the ride, and people would be streaming by Howard without recognizing him. Imagine that, little Opie, Richie Cunningham himself, standing right there in the open, and nobody knowing he was right there among them. He was the opposite of someone like Michael Jackson, who visited Knotts quite often, and at the height of Thriller mania he continues to show up in full "royal" regalia, loving the recognifition from the public (that's another story). Howard was always extremely appreciative that we let his kid into the various attractions ( I particularly remember BDHOW loving the little bounce house, jumping up and down like crazy with the other kids) and made zero fuss about who he was, so he could simply enjoy the time with his daughter and her friends instead of having to stand around signing autographs and stuff.
Yeah, I used to put little BDHOW into the bounce house at Camp Snoopy.
AWESOME.