Haunted Mansion Merchandise
My childhood experiences with Disney World started when I was really young, I was two when I first went. I don't remember that visit at all. Then I went again when I was six, and when I was six it culminated with this very exciting thing which was: We were on our last ticket of the night (this is back in the days when they had ticket books to get into Disney), and we decided to use it to go the Haunted Mansion. It was the end of the park's day, so it was largely empty, and it was dark out. The cast member who let us in was so good - she was really into it, she really hammed it up, you know: "Master Gracie requests more bodies" - and let us in, and we went through that ride and it was such a perfect cap to such a perfect trip, and I never forgot about it.

I took all the spending money I had, and I blew it on the souvenirs from the Haunted Mansion. And we got in our rental car, and we started driving back to our Grandparents' place, and I fell asleep in the backseat. And the car broke down. And they called AAA, and they sent out another rental car, and we transferred into the new car. I was carried, sleeping (I had the ability to sleep through just about anything). Woke up the next morning, went to find all that lovely schwag, and found out that we'd left it in the first rental car. And it was gone, and I never saw it again. It's like my Rosebud. In my mind those souvenirs were the coolest merchandise ever made for any theme park in the history of the world bar none.

Last seen in Orlando, Florida, 1977

Cory, Los Angeles

Labels: Disney World, Florida, Haunted Mansion, Orlando, rental car, Rosebud, schwag, souvenir, theme park

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