I looked up some etymology on ‘Blog’ and it mentions 1998. Twelve years before that I wrote my first Diz blog – well, it was more of an essay than a blog, since no one really new what a web (from ‘weblog’) was. But the essay was on some really good composition paper!
The end of January was (is? comparatively speaking) always such a great time to travel to WDW. It was the comedown after the Holiday blitz. The Magic Kingdom was open until 6pm! 6pm! (There was in fact a time where Extra Magic Hours didn’t exist.) In 1986, I had to write some kind of competitive essay for my 6th grade class. I wrote about my vacation.
I’m writing blind on this because our home movies didn’t start until two years later, but I know I wrote about The Living Seas (which was the new attraction) and the awesomeness that is the Polynesian and swimming in the pool with the water slide that came out of the cave (the original one). There was the final weeks of Magic Journeys in 3-D and the buzz of Captain EO. On that Friday, the 31st, I got to see Disney University and the Utilidors for the first time, got huge sketches from an artist that still hang in my parents’ basement, and met the original Dreamfinder without his get up (did you read his book? It’s great!). And I wrote how Sista Dillo’s birthday was immersed in the vacation for the first time ever (we arrived that day) and how The Challenger being destroyed on the 28th brought a hush to The Happiest Place on Earth.
I suppose that last part got me the award for best essay in the class – which later I found out was merely a ‘semi-final’ in which I had to take on all the other sixth grade class winners (ugh – competition). Funny that what still sticks out in my brain about that day was the quiet. And not the typical ‘the background music is a little eerie over the sounds of the Future World fountains’ quiet. Like the air had been taken out of the place but, yet, the show still went on.
In 2014, January 27-31st follow the Monday-Friday structure it did in 1986. I wonder if the memories of that trip will jump into my brain a little more than they did today.
Brother Dillo