| Biographical Non-Fiction posted December 15, 2020 | Chapters: |
...84 85 -86- 87... 
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Our family makes a trip to Orlando
A chapter in the book Remembering Yesterday
We're Going to Disney World
by BethShelby
| Background The year is the summer of 1982. The kids are out of college and doing other things for the summer and at the end of summer we go to Orlando to take Carol for a nursing assignment. |
For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.
Connie had her ninth birthday in June. She had complained the whole year at Jefferson Heights about her teacher, and she begged us to let her go back to Alice Birney Public school for the fifth grade. The main reason she disliked the school so much was because the teacher seemed to think she had a demon that needed to be rebuked. She could be a handful at times, but I wasn’t happy about the demon thing. Also at this school, there was no lunch program, but at public school, she could get a hot lunch in the cafeteria.
You and I talked about it, and since she was so unhappy, we decided to let her go back to Alice Birney. It wasn’t a bad school, and our budget, with three in college, was being stretched pretty tight. The private school was almost as expensive as college.
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When Don and Christi returned from camp, Don couldn’t quit talking about some girl he had met named Angie. He always seemed to find a girlfriend wherever he went. One good thing was when he decided he liked a girl, she was the only one as long as it lasted. He could only be interested in one at a time. This girl would be going to college with him in the fall, so he was hoping their friendship would continue in September.
Things hadn’t worked out so well for Carol with Tommy, her half-Korean friend. They had continued writing to each other while she was in Tennessee. He had made a trip up to visit her. I think she actually cared deeply for him, and he had often talked about marriage. He was her first serious boyfriend, but she didn’t feel she was ready for marriage. Still, she had hoped they could get back together while she was in Texas. You felt uneasy about him because when when he was young, he'd lived as a street kid, until he was adopted by an American family.
Connie had her ninth birthday in June. She had complained the whole year at Jefferson Heights about her teacher, and she begged us to let her go back to Alice Birney Public school for the fifth grade. The main reason she disliked the school so much was because the teacher seemed to think she had a demon that needed to be rebuked. She could be a handful at times, but I wasn’t happy about the demon thing. Also at this school, there was no lunch program, but at public school, she could get a hot lunch in the cafeteria.
You and I talked about it, and since she was so unhappy, we decided to let her go back to Alice Birney. It wasn’t a bad school, and our budget, with three in college, was being stretched pretty tight. The private school was almost as expensive as college.
********
When Don and Christi returned from camp, Don couldn’t quit talking about some girl he had met named Angie. He always seemed to find a girlfriend wherever he went. One good thing was when he decided he liked a girl, she was the only one as long as it lasted. He could only be interested in one at a time. This girl would be going to college with him in the fall, so he was hoping their friendship would continue in September.
Things hadn’t worked out so well for Carol with Tommy, her half-Korean friend. They had continued writing to each other while she was in Tennessee. He had made a trip up to visit her. I think she actually cared deeply for him, and he had often talked about marriage. He was her first serious boyfriend, but she didn’t feel she was ready for marriage. Still, she had hoped they could get back together while she was in Texas. You felt uneasy about him because when when he was young, he'd lived as a street kid, until he was adopted by an American family.
She spent the summer doing nursing clinicals at a Fort Worth hospital and living in the college dorm with her Asian friend Li Lin. Carol was still extremely religious, and was wearing only dresses and no makeup. Tommy was a lifeguard at the campus pool. Carol didn’t care for the way he was flirting with the girls in the pool. In some ways, he had changed. Tommy had started drinking occasionally. They argued a lot, and at one point he got drunk and came to her dorm late at night. He tore the screen off her window and tried to drag her out of her room.
When it was time for her to catch the bus back home, they didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, so she assumed it was over with them. She came back from Texas in a somber mood, and sometimes when she talked about Tommy, she cried. You were okay with them breaking up, but we both felt bad for her.
********
In August as we had planned, we took Carol to Orlando so she could work at Florida Hospital as a nurse technician. We were able to rent a room for the rest of the family at the dorm provided for nursing students. I remember we all watched the movie, Oliver Twist, while we were there. Carol would be rooming with a friend from Southern College in Tennessee. Her name was Cheryl.
The following morning, the rest of us went to the Magic Kingdom of Disney World. Carol didn’t want to go. This was the first trip there for all of us. You weren’t excited about it, because fantasy wasn’t your thing, but I think you were impressed with the place. Everything was so clean. It was beautifully landscaped with flowers and streams everywhere. Disney characters were roaming the streets and having their pictures taken with children.
The place was divided into sections that contained different kinds of rides, restaurants, and souvenir shops matching the theme of that section. In Adventureland, you decided you were going to get sunburned, so you bought a wide brimmed hat that made you look like Indiana Jones.
The lines were long, and after we did the Tree House, the Jungle cruise, and Pirates of Caribbean, you wanted coffee. In those days, your body ran on coffee. If you didn’t have it often, you got a severe headache. We stopped for coffee and then walked around a bit more. Connie wanted to do some of the things in Fantasyland. We did the It’s a Small World ride and let Connie ride the Tea Cups. By that time, you were ready to eat lunch.
Don and Christi were tired of hanging around with us, because we were slowing them down. After we ate, they went out on their own. Connie wasn’t happy about having to hang out with just us, but we didn’t want to risk losing her, so she had no choice but to stay with us. Don had called a girl he knew who lived in Orlando. Cindy had been his girlfriend when he worked at Camp Kulaqua. She came to the park and joined him and Christi. It was a while before we all got back together again.
We went through Liberty Square where we watched a parade. While there, we enjoyed the Hall of Presidents ride. The U.S. presidents were made of wax, or vinyl. They were animated and actually talked. They looked very real. In Frontierland, we rode a very scary roller-coaster ride. I think Tomorrowland might have been your favorite. We sat down for a while and watched the Carousel of Progress-- where inventions from the distant past -- all through the years-- all the way to things expected to be invented in the future went slowly past us.
The Wild Mouse ride in Space Mountain was the scariest ride I’ve ever been on. I had Connie in front of me, and I was so afraid she would be flung out, that I was holding on to her with all my might. She kept wiggling, and I thought she was trying to get out. It was because I was pinching her, but the more she wiggled the tighter I held her. The music and sound of the ride was so loud we couldn’t hear each other.
By two o’clock, you were ready to leave, but after many cups of coffee and a few pain pills, we persuaded you to stay in spite of the pain. We didn’t miss much. There were too many things to do to mention them all. We actually managed to get through the whole day and even stayed for the last show at the Magic Kingdom and then watched the fireworks. We met Don’s friend, Cindy, and she insisted on buying me a china teapot before we left. I got the impression she really liked Don, but to him, she was only a friend. The kids all got Disney sweatshirts.
The following day, we did get Carol to go to another Disney park. She and I took a boat to an island that had all sorts of birds, wildlife, and unusual trees and flowers. It was called Discovery Island. It was an eleven-acre island, which Disney finally closed to the public in 1999. Later, we also went to Sea World, where we toured a huge aquarium, watched a dolphin show, and walked through a place teeming with flamingos. It was a trip to remember.
******
Not long after we got back to Metairie, Don and Christi went back to college. This time, Don took the Auto Mechanic course, for which he thought he needed the Firebird. This turned out to be a major fiasco. Right after he started the class, he got on the bad side of the teacher. He brought parts of the old car in and started trying to clean them with a solvent, and he spilled motor oil all over the tile in the work area. Apparently, he must have done some permanent damage to the floor, because things went from bad to worse in that class.
 Recognized |
I'm continuing to recall memories of life with my deceased husband, Evan, as if I am talking aloud to him. I'm doing this because I want my children to know us as we knew each other and not just as their parents.
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