Most of my summer breaks as a child were spent in a sleep/eat/stay in pajamas 90% of the day cycle. If this sounds like a complaint to you, that means you don’t know me at all. Hello, I’m Lorraine. I like sleeping, eating and pajamas. It’s nice to meet you.
But this post isn’t about watching back to back episodes of Dawson’s Creek all summer, or that one time my sisters and I took to watching soap operas. This post is about a magical summer, when we piled into my uncles sandy-poop colored mini-van and all took off to Disney World.
Guys: DISNEY WORLD.
I was seven and three quarters on that trip, so my memories are mostly hazy, interrupted here and there by a burst of clarity.
For instance, I clearly remember the outfit my mother bought for me and my sisters, because hell yes, we were all matching. Light washed, high waisted, to the knee shorts, a white shirt with a huge Mickey Mouse on it (tucked in), white keds, and a yellow, blue and red Mickey Mouse hat. A hat, I might add, which I thought would be best worn TO THE SIDE, with my ponytail conviently located on the other side of my head.
I also clearly remember riding on Splash Mountain for the first time and being so scared that in the picture they snap of you mid-fall, I had my head almost between my knees. I would later claim to be trying to save my mother’s hat, which did fall off, but conveniently landed at my feet while I was busy screaming my head off and basically dying.
I remember begging my parents for an autograph book, mostly because my uncle bought my cousins one. My parents were very anti-paying a million dollars for a book of plain paper so that adults in cartoon costumes could scribble on it. I see that now, but back then, it was all pouts and stamped feet. I eventually got one, but it was so late in the day, that the only character I found was Pluto.
Perhaps some of you are reading this account wondering why I chose this as the best vacation of my childhood. “That’s kind of lame, Lorraine,” you are thinking. But it wasn’t because:
1.) We took precious few vacations together, all as a family. When we did travel, it was mostly to visit family. This was different. It was us, together, with no obligations other than having fun.
2.) As someone who’s spent most of her life in Florida, Disney World has grown to hold a special place in my heart. Every time I walk into Magic Kingdom and see the castle, I still feel like the six year old with the sideways hat and side ponytail.
3.) It was one of the only summers we spent away, even if it was only three hours to the northwest. I had a story to tell when school started that year that didn’t start with, “On Days of Our Lives...”
The moral of the story is: everyone should go to Disney World.
