I can't explain why, but I get a kick out of this first photo today. We're in the pre-show area of the Enchanted Tiki Room, and four women patiently wait until they can go into the main show building. It's like an all-female Mount Rushmore! Their pastel pants suits (well, OK, the one on the left is wearing a dress) make them look like layers of a parfait. Ah, the 80's! I'll bet they were all into "A Flock of Seagulls" and "Wham!".
Those flowers pale next to her beauty!
Major-
ReplyDeleteWe can see what appears to be names tags on two of the lovely ladies. Hmmm.
Thanks, Major.
They look like the kind of ladies who taught 7th grade social studies in a suburban junior high school. Do not be fooled. Those were some mean ladies!
ReplyDeleteIf you put the "jimi Hendrix" song on first (to match the title) and then view the photos it has a more powerful effect.
ReplyDeleteThanks Major
The guy with the red, white & blue striped shirt in the first photo is definitely on a shooting expedition. The larger camera in his left hand is an early Kodak instant camera, most likely "The Handle," although there were a few models that used the same body design. The smaller camera dangling beneath it is almost definitely a Kodak Instamatic 134. Would love to see what he shot that day.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of our first trip to WDW as parents. One kid was nearly three (had to take advantage of that free admission while we could) and the other was only six months old. Trying to capture every possible moment in every possible format, I remember at one point carrying a 35mm SLR around my neck, a video camera on my right wrist, and a vintage Kodak Reflex II TLR on my left. I turned around to help my toddler into the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and discovered he was gone.
I found him a frantic few seconds later at the entrance to the queue, already being led off by a helpful CM who was very leery of releasing my son back to me (he's Asian and I'm not). Several lessons learned that day:
1. Dress the whole family identically and make sure you pin parental ID to your little ones.
2. It's more important to hold your son's hand and enjoy creating a memory with him than taking pictures of the moment for posterity and losing him in a crowd forever.
Three years later, we lost his brother at the exit gift shop for the same ride and didn't get him back for almost an hour. That little stinker got focused on a toy, looked up, didn't see us (we were in the next aisle), and wandered back to the Fastpass kiosk looking for us. Then he saw the Teacups, became fascinated with the lights and motion in the twilight, and wandered off in that direction. Some college girls fell in love with him and turned him over to an older CM, who became his best buddy as they slowly meandered across the parade route to the Lost Children office.
By the time an MK Security host managed to get us through the crowd to meet up with him, he was snuggled into a couch with the CM that had found him, a snack and a drink in hand and watching "Peter Pan" on a video screen, at which point his older brother asked "can I get lost, too, so I can get a snack and a drink?"
Two more lessons learned:
1. Disney really does have an outstanding program in place for finding and securing lost children and returning them to their parents without frightening them or their parents.
2. We should consider handcuffing our children to us within 200 yards of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Nanook, you're right, they are wearing tags of some kind. Unusual! Maybe they were part of a tour?
ReplyDeleteLeonard Bast, ha ha! I suppose looks can be deceiving; I can't help thinking of these ladies as nice grandmas!
Alonzo, I think people should ALWAYS listen to Hendrix while viewing my blog! "Purple Haze" is a particular favorite of mine.
Chuck, I remember "The Handle"… I always liked it because it was so different from normal cameras, and kind of fun. I think I remember a commercial with Dick Van Dyke? Your story about your kids getting separated from the rest of the family reminded me of when I got "lost" myself as a small child. We were all walking through Tomorrowland (siblings, mom and dad, and grandparents), and I noticed that climbers were scaling the Matterhorn. So I stopped to watch them for a minute, and when I looked up, I didn't see anybody from my family. PANIC TIME! I don't remember if I cried, but I do recall a nice uniformed security guard leaning down and talking to me nicely, and he found my family fairly quickly. According to my grandma, he had some stern words for them, which was unfair, since (as you pointed out), you can take your eyes off a kid for a SECOND, and they can manage to vanish! It IS good to know that the park is so prepared for the inevitable lost child or two.
I remember that Dick Van Dyke commercial for the Handle! Really a rather innovative-looking camera design. I don't know what it was like to shoot with one, but it gets an "A" for styling.
ReplyDeleteI lost my parents at Cedar Point in a similar manner when I was probably three. I slowed down to look at the Von Roll Skyway going overhead, said something to my mom, and heard giggles from the teenage girls who were standing where my mom had been a second before. Massive panic for what was really probably only a of five seconds or so before I found them about 20 feet ahead in the crowd, but it seemed like an eternity before I caught up to them in a dead run.
Today, the Disney folks are more focused on keeping parents calm rather than reading them the Riot Act for losing a child. I know my wife was trying hard not to freak out, and a talking-to at that point wouldn't have helped. I honestly wasn't worried; I'd read enough about their lost child procedures to know that it was well-nigh impossible anyone would be able to get him out of the Park once we'd sounded the alert. We'd briefed him that morning to look for someone with an oval nametag if he ever got lost, and the nametag on the CM that found him was what made him feel secure while he was being led to the Lost Children holding tank.