the pieces of my life

I know that the Grad Nite of my youth is nothing like the Grad Nite of today (although I will give you that “now is the time! Now is the time! Now is the best time of your life!”), but I still can’t help but feel sad that this rite of passage will no longer be. Disney World has announced it’s canceling Grad Nite after this year.

What’s Grad Nite? Only the coolest night of senior year of high school. When the seniors showed up at Beach High at 5 p.m. to load a bus and drive the four hours to Orlando (okay, Lake Buena Vista, but we’re splitting hairs here). The park is closed from 11 p.m. till 5 a.m…. except for high school seniors. Thousands upon thousands of high school seniors. Taking total control of the park. It was mayhem. It was madness. It was magical. It was Mickey.

Busses drove seniors up from as far south as the Keys, busses came down from Georgia and Alabama. For one night, the seniors ruled the Magic Kingdom. We all got frisked going in, to make sure we were drug, alcohol, and weapon free, not that it stopped that certain herbal smell in It’s a Small World. (And when you think of how far those drugs had traveled, it kind of proved the point of the ride, didn’t it? So all it all, it was not just fun, but educational.)

Bands played; my year had Animotion (“You’re my obsession. My obsession. Who do you want me to be, to make you be with me?”), Ready For The World, Rene & Angela, Nu Shooz, Starpoint, Klymaxx, Miami Sound Machine, Sly Fox. No, I didn’t remember that. But there are lists out there to look these kinds of things up. The bands and dance floors were placed strategically around the park.

The tickets were about $35—I think about $18 to get into Disney World and another $15 or $20 for the school bus ride up there. We were required to dress up. And I mean dress up. Sundresses without a jacket were not allowed. Casual skirts were not allowed. We could wear party dresses or dressy pants suits. And shoes. Real shoes. No sneakers. No sandals unless they were dressy. The boys were required to wear ties (although they could choose regular or bow). Have you ever tried to ride Space Mountain in a dress? I have. It’s not easy.

I’d say that night was full of memories for me, but the truth is, I barely remember it. Hey, it was senior year of high school. I hung out with a boy named Tiger (whatever happened to Tiger?) and I remember having my picture taken multiple times, but for the life of me I don’t know where those pictures are. Probably with my high school journals. Which I still can’t find. My father did recently give me my college diploma, which he had been storing, only twenty-two years after the fact, so that gives me hope that things of mine are still rattling around my parents place. Am I getting distracted here? Promise there’s no herbal smell in the house. That scent is pure rank hockey clothing and a bit of spilled red wine. The point is, while I may not have specific memories of that night, I do have generic memories of fabulous night. In other words, Grad Nite was a lot like the rest of my childhood. One fuzzy memory filled with lots of emotion.

But now Disney is shutting the proverbial doors in order to keep their nonproverbial doors open—spring is too busy of a time to take the financial hit of Grad Nite. Mickey is worried about his bottom line. And the best high school tradition ever comes to an end.

“Forever hold your banner high.” Or at least, hold your banner high till the real paying guests come.

We made it back. All in one piece. Oh, you didn’t know we were gone? Disney World! I have to say, it was a really great Disney adventure, and I was truly sorry to come back. I think that Disney is one of those places where you either go as a stick-in-the mud “I hate this bullshit” attitude or you just suck it up and drink the Kool Aid. And you all remember the family motto. I sucked it up. I drank that Kool Aid and I asked for seconds!

I’m truly tired and don’t think I can blog everything at this moment, so I’ll hopefully add more later, but it was an excellent trip. But a few of the highlights, which may be repeats for those who are Facebook friends:

–The trip started a little ominously when we checked in at home for our JetBlue flight and then brought our bags to drop off. Now, we usually fly American. We’re used to this drill. With American we usually drop our bags at curbside or head to a kiosk. JetBlue? Not so much. The line for bag drop stretched longer than the hour and ten minutes we had till our flight. In a panic, we decided to take our bags on the flight. Only of course we had packed all our toiletries and TSA decided to be sticklers on the gels over 3.5 ounces or whatever the ridiculous rule is. Out went Adam’s hair gel, out went my shampoo, out went my $40 face cleaner (that sounds much better if you read it to the tune of “Rock Island” from Music Man. Here, I’ll even give you the next line: Look whatayatalk. whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayataalk, whatayatalk?). And then, of course, the TVs on the flight weren’t working. Fun times!

–Our family was following the certified, patent-pending Goldfarb System®. I don’t want to give too much of the system away, but it is a fool-proof method for doing the Disney parks in the most efficient and line-preventing way. I will testify that the Goldfarb System® works. But… only if you follow it to the T. The first day I got cocky. I thought I could figure out a few shortcuts to the Goldfarb System®. But I was wrong. And I paid in a big way, with a screaming daughter and a son who waited in line for thirty minutes for the Astro Orbiter. The next day I followed the plan to the letter and had an immensely successful day. Day three, we had the system perfected to the point where my son had a mere five minute wait for Toy Story Mania, got to ride Star Tours… twice, and still got to have another go at the Buzz Lightyear ride. Yes, the system is that good.

–We had characters up the wazoo. First Pie met Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora in Toon Town. Then we had breakfast with Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, Ariel, and Snow White. Then another breakfast with JoJo, Goliath (from JoJo’s Circus) and Leo and June (from Little Einsteins). Then dinner with Chip and Dale, Mickey and Pluto. Plus we ran into Goofy, Daisy, Donald Duck, and Minnie around the parks. We also caught glimpses of a whole bunch others. But that girl of mine, she can hold a grudge. Our final dinner, at the Garden Grille in The Land, Dale, Mickey, and Pluto came to our table. But not Chip. “When is Chip coming? I want to see Chip!” She would not be put off. “There’s Chip! Why isn’t he coming to see us?” Finally we left without Chip. She shook hands with Pluto, flirted with Mickey, had her picture taken with Dale. So I asked, “How did you like dinner?” “It was awful!” she told me. “Chip never came to see us.”

–Most exciting thing for girl? When Belle noticed that her skirt had “Beast print” on it. (Why more about the girl than the boy? Because for much of the trip we split up and I spent most of my time with the girl)

–New form of torture? My mother and daughter singing “It’s a Small World” over and over and over and over… and over and over and over… (deep breath) and over and over and over. And then not understanding why I wanted them to stop.

–The Wishes fireworks display was only a mild hit. I let Pie stay up late to watch it; Doodles decided to pass. We went with the Nana to watch the display over Cinderella’s castle. Pie seemed to be into it, but later informed us, “I didn’t like it. The booms made my teeth shake.”

–At the princess breakfast, you walk in and the first thing that happens is a picture with Belle that the family gets a copy of by the end of breakfast.
Me: I want a family picture with Belle.
Pie: I want to stand between Mommy and Belle!
Doodles: I want to stand between Daddy and the wall.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say later. Or maybe I won’t. That’s the way these blogs fly. Now I gotta go have another swig of Kool Aid. Mmm, that’s good!