In 1997, the rocket scientists at Gaylord Entertainment shuttered Opryland USA theme park, so that they could tear it down and put up a shopping mall. Their rationale was that the theme park was only open part of the year, and the Opryland Hotel (now known as the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center) next door would be better served by an attraction which would be available to convention visitors year-round.

But Opry Mills, as nice as it is, is still just a shopping mall. And in closing Opryland theme park, Gaylord broke Middle Tennessee’s heart.

WNPT, the public TV station in Nashville, aired “Memories of Opryland” tonight as part of its occasional series of “Memories of Nashville” documentaries. It was a terrific show, and brought back so many vivid memories of the musical shows, the rides, and just the wonderful surroundings. I had a season pass to Opryland the last few years it was open, and it was so much fun, when I was in Nashville during the park season, to just stop by and wander around.

There was a lot of great information about the live shows — which really were live, not lip-synched or sung to recorded tracks. Chely Wright, now a country music star, talked with great affection about her time as an Opryland performer.

The creator of the Thrillhunter site, which has lots of information about the site, was also a key interview. And even a prominent Nashville blogger was interviewed.

I loved that the closing credits featured the key above-the-line personnel with their caricatures, of the kind that many people had drawn at Opryland back in the day. (My parents still have theirs.)

Gaylord helped provide photos and videos, including old TV ads, for the special, and so the filmmakers glossed over the theme park’s demise, making it sound like a natural death instead of murder. As my father pointed out when I called him after the special, Dollywood is still alive and profitable.

My out-of-state brother wasn’t sure whether to ask someone to tape the show for him or not, thinking he might find it depressing. Well, yes, a little. But it was worth it for the wonderful memories.

It’s amazing the little things you remember.

I had forgotten about the little outfits with the short skirts — almost like cheerleader outfits, but not quite — that the girls who ran the Wabash Cannonball rollercoaster wore when it first opened. As a hormone-filled teenage boy in the 1970s, I remember seeing the girls in those skirts.

One of the interviewees — it may have been the Thrillhunter guy — remembered the little fruit drinks in plastic bottles shaped like the appropriate fruit (an orange, a bunch of grapes, etc.), and said he still had some of those lying around somewhere.

On Thanksgiving Day, my father pulled out some little slide peep viewers from one of our Opryland visits. A park photographer would take your family’s photo when you arrived, and then on your way out of the park you could buy a little plastic keychain fob which, if you held it up to the light and looked through it, revealed a little slide of your photo.

I miss Opryland. Not a summer goes by that I don’t think about it.