Are We In Flushing?

It’s been a few weeks since the Florida trip. Emily was in hog heaven at Disney. What kid her age wouldn’t be after tons of advertising and exposure to the “Disney Experience?” This was my third trip to the Magic Kingdom and it was different this time. I got to step back and really look at what was being presented. It’s amazing.

In this day of hyper inflated costs the airline tickets were the real bargain in this mix. Three of us flew from Albany to Orlando for about $75 less than the admission to the parks. It just kills me to pay what they want for these “Amusement Parks”.

Once inside the park I had a strange connection to the past. An almost Déjà vu experience. Yea, we’d been here before and also to the park in California a few times. But this time it was a closer experience. Something from my childhood. I couldn’t quite pin it down until I got home and studied the situation. Suddenly it hit me. It’s 1964 / 1965 all over again! The crowds, the overpriced food, the cattle stalls, the long waits for a short unsatisfying ride or attraction. Were we at the Worlds Fair or Disney? The line begins to blur.

At the time of the 1964 / 1965 Worlds Fair Disney was a huge driving force in many of the exibits and features of the Fair. Here is where the "audio-animatronics," was introduced. Remember Lincoln at the Illinois pavilion? Or how about the largest collection of animated figures at the time and for many years later, “It’s a Small World”. That nauseating song that plays over and over again driving the hardest core criminal to seek solitary confinement. This Pepsi Pavilion exhibit was dismantled and shipped to Anaheim for Disneyland and there is sits with it’s evil twin in Florida.

Sinclair Oil gave us the Dinoland exhibit which also went west to the Disneyland railroad. General Electric and Ford also used the "audio-animatronics," formula for their pavilions. General Motors even asked Disney to design their exhibits but Disney said no, then someone got their ass chewed at Disney and the rest, as they say is history.

As the Worlds Fair closed, and failed, discussion ensued whereas Flushing Meadows Park would be converted to an east coast “Disneyland”. Imagine that, Mickey, Minnie and the gang in Queens! “Shal-la-ka-zoola!

But instead much of the 1964 / 1965 experience was packed up and sent to California and Florida where it lives to this day. Epcot is the closest thing to a permanent Worlds Fair we have.

So if you enter into the Magic Kingdom beware of Déjà vu. Unless you were born after 1965. Otherwise you’ll be suffering from Vuja De. You know, the feeling you’ve never been there before.