Wednesday, July 13, 2022

The Way We Were Wednesday : Walt Disney World The Early Years


 I took this one in January or February of 1972, the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida had opened in late October of 1971.  To quote Rose in Titanic, you could still smell the fresh paint.  

This was taken with a Kodak Instamatic, the square format from the 126 film cartridge is the telltale sign of that.  I had received an Instamatic as a Christmas gift that year or the year before.  For a couple of years I carried two of them, often with color film in one and black and white in the other.  We had a makeshift darkroom in the garage and I could process and print the black and white at home.  

I remember the ticket books, with different values for different rides, you had to decide what you wanted to see.  But just walking in this world of wonders was amazing for a farm boy from nowhere.  

My middle brother worked for Disney for 43 years.  I visited the parks many-many times.  I had a couple of opportunities to get behind the scenes, I have been down the length of the tunnel under Main Street.  The last few years I lived in Orlando, I was buying annual passes. It was fun to run out and have lunch, or just ride the train around the outside and go home.  I read that the train recently went back in service, it had been closed for several years for construction around Space Mountain.  

13 comments:

  1. Living nearby and having an annual pass would be ideal. We lived 10 minutes from Disneyland, but by that time we had been there so many times that we never went back. We could hear (but not see) the fireworks from our apartment in Irvine. I have never been to Disneyworld.

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    1. The last time I went, things felt very plastic - fake - like a Kardashian.

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  2. Anonymous7/13/2022

    Was the square photo a good thing? I can't remember. The last times my mother took photos she had begun using disposable cameras.

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    1. It was about a 1 inch square negative, little smaller than a 35mm negative. Much better than the 110 format that followed.

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  3. I, too, remember the ticket books, though since we lived in California we mostly went to Disneyland. Such great memories ...

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    1. I went to Disneyland once, sometime in the past dozen years. Glad I did

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  4. I think everyone of our generation must have had a Kodak Instamatic at one point or another!

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  5. Walt Disney said, "When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do." Thanks for sharing so many fun and interesting stories!

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    1. The older I get, the better storyteller I am. I was at a backstage rehearsal with the composer John Williams at WDW one time.

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  6. This brought back some memories. I remember those ticket books also. I also remember how much more impressive that castle was compared to the one in California. How fun it must have been to go anytime you wanted.

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    1. On my day off, I'd go out just for lunch on Main Street. The Magic Kingdom remains my favorite park.

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  7. This image is a true vintage of the time at the very beginning. It still looks magical in its own way

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    1. Thank you, and welcome to the adventure

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