That large grey object was the "cave" you entered upon leaving the treehouse. It featured one room that was completely dark...an infinity room. White miniature Christmas lights were strung ceiling to floor, and the walls, ceiling and floor was covered in mirrors. Weird electronic blips and beeps, a "space type music" was pumped into the room. Walking through the Infinity room was like walking across the cosmos, it appeared as if you were floating or walking through outer space. Now, I'm a real stickler for theme, and that room, my friends, was never in theme. But somehow the infinity room fit in OK...I think that was because when originially built as Herman the Hermits Treetop House, it was filled with weird and wild inventions that Herman came up with, and they all worked. You had just come through a two story treehouse with unusual inventions, had walked down a staircase, and into a cave, but somehow, you had been taken to outer space! What can I say, it worked! Remember, when the treehouse was opened in 1968 or '69, it was the peak of space exploration...MAN HAD JUST LANDED ON THE MOON. In the early to mid 60s, SDC had a Western theme, as westerns were popular, as the decade passed, theme was altered to strictly an Ozark theme. But, as theme parks do, they ride the wave of pop culture, even at SDC, and that "Infinity Room" just fit the times. One of my jobs as Junior Dugan was to clean the treehouse each morning. The infinity room looked quite different with the work lights on. I actually preferred sweeping the walkway in the dark...not because I could get away with not doing a good job...but because I loved spending a few minutes in that weird, wacky room with all the effects in full force.
