Tag Archives: #Disney

The Grand Marshall Picker

26 Jan

Do you remember lining Main Street at Walt Disney World, waiting expectantly for the two o’clock parade? Finally you hear the music heralding the procession and leading the parade is the Grand Marshall.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Mike Thomas over at The Story Tell Almanac has a treat for you today. An interview with Dean Gaschler, the man who for twenty-two years chose who would be honored as Grand Marshall of the Magic Kingdom Main Street parade!


CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

“Now retired, Dean was the person who used to choose who the Grand Marshalls would be for the afternoon parade at The Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World in Florida. He shares both some heartwarming and whimsical memories from his 22 year career with Disney.”

About Mike Thomas The Story Teller Almanac

I’ve been ‘clickin’ the shutter since I was about 16. I morphed into video production when I went to work for The Walt Disney Company many years ago. Currently, I still work for Disney. But my real passion and path is utilizing my photography and multimedia skill sets for the greater good. Translated, anything or anybody that deserves recognition, appreciation or documenting for future history, I’m all over it. Too many important things just slip away in a fast moving, fast paced world / society. ‘If ya’ wanna know where you’re going, ya’ gotta know where ya’ come from’ (Sir Lawrence Olivier – The Jazz Singer 1980). 

If you feel so inclined, I’d sure appreciate you subscribing to Storyteller Almanac on any of the major podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and more. Really helps me grow the po

To contact me for any reason, please click or copy & paste: 

MikeThomasImagery@gmail.com

SOMETHING OF INTEREST…TO US, AT LEAST Part 4

1 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

While the door “handles” on many of the stores at Disney Springs are fun and interesting to us, we also found some things that I will call “oddities” that we thought you might find fun as well.

We’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you will, as well.

Have you ever seen an Archimedes Screw?  Or know what it is and what it is used for?  Here is a VERY small version, Disney style:

Here is Fred spinning the wheel and you can see the water flowing from the pool up onto the landing, made for it.  Of course then it goes right back into the pool, but it gives you a feel for what the Archimedes Screw does.

Remember back to the time that Holland  actually increased its land size by using Archimedes Screws to channel water away from the land and back into the ocean to make more land?   

Here’s a picture of actual Archimedes Screws at work in Kinderdijk, Holland, from our river cruise in 2015:

Back to Disney Springs:

Here’s the logo for the Coach store.   Cute…

In the middle of one of the major walkways, is a gigantic “directional” star:

Description: Directon star

At the appropriate points of the star, there are directional points, with a symbol, each different:

North has an airplane:

Description: Direction star - North - airplane

South has an old-fashioned horse and buggy:

Description: Direction Star - South - horse and buggy

East has a paddle-wheel boat:

Description: Direction Star - East - paddle boat

West has a train (“go West, young man” hmm?):

Description: Directon Star - West - train

The Irish Pub has a bronze man taking a rest on the bench, his hat sitting beside him:

Description: Irish Pub sign and bronze man

We caught the Rain Forest Café volcano in mid-eruption:

Description: Rain Forest volcano - 2

Have you ever seen a building with grass growing on top of it?  Starbucks has it here:

Description: Starbucks and grass top

The World of Disney Store (largest Disney store ever) has a figure of Stitch outside – and he spits!!  So watch out where you walk!

Description: World of Disney store - spitting Stitch

The World of Disney store also has a cute weathervane:

Description: World of Disney store - Tinker Bell weather vane - 1
Description: World of Disney store - Tinker Bell weather vane - 2

More next time….

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Something of Interest…To Us, At Least-Part 3

23 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

As I mentioned before, we were walking around Disney Springs recently and it occurred to me that lot of the door “handles” on the newer stores there have interesting and unique handles.

We’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you do, as well.

Here is the third “batch” of stores with unique door handles:

Vera Bradley is a fairly well-known brand

The door handles show her brand

Tumi is not a brand known to us

But the door handles are unique:

Lucky Brand is an unknown brand to us.

The door handles remind me of a “gripper snap” on blue jeans or western shirts – some might call them “rivets” or studs.

Marvel has its own store.

While the door handles aren’t unique, the symbols on the doors are:

Raglan Road is an eatery that looks interesting:

They do have some interesting door handles:

(opps…caught Fred in this one!)

Lilly Pulitzer has a store here, as well.

And the door handles show her “brand.”

(caught Fred in this one, as well)

Savannah Bee Company is an interesting store. Everything honey, as you might imagine.

While the door handles are not unique, the doors themselves are:

This last one is not really a “door handle” example, but we have been fascinated by this little shop every time we pass it by.  See what you think:

B. B. Wolf’s Sausage Company sells…you guessed it –  everything sausages!

Notice the fork in the sausage on the chimney:

And the weathervane is adorable!!  Notice he’s standing on a fork!

That’s all for this week – and the door handles.  Next time I’ll be presenting some unique “things” around Disney Springs that we enjoy, and that fascinate us.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Something of Interest…To Us, at Least-Part 2

15 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

As I mentioned last time, we were walking around Disney Springs recently and it occurred to me that lot of the door “handles” on the newer stores there are quite interesting and unique.  And just for information purposes, most of the stores I have photographed for this posting, are NOT Disney – they are just on Disney property.  Some of the names are quite recognizable, but others are not – at least not to either Fred or me.

Therefore, we’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you do, as well.

This is a second “batch” of stores with unique door handles:

The Disney Candy Cauldron is a fun store.

There is a large front picture-window where the passer-by can stand and watch some of the candy being made.  Especially the candy apples.

All that metal frame work around the picture window is around the door as well:

Another unique door is at the George Wine Bar:

Can you say “shillelagh”

Columbia Sportswear Company has unique door handles – fish hooks perhaps?

And speaking of unique door handles, there is Kipling.

One of my favorites is the Levi store.

Description: Levi's sign

These handles really caught my eye:

Description: Levi's door

Here is the Keihl’s store – an unknown store brand to us:

Description: Kiehl's sign
Description: Kiehl's door

Okay, here come the cleats:

Description: Sperry sign

Imagine – having cleats as a door handle!

Description: Sperry - cleats - 2

Sugarboo is just a name that tickles my fancy.

Description: Sugarboo & Co

Their door handles are cute, as well.

Description: Sugarboo door

Frontera Cocina is unknown to us, but looks like a good Mexican food restaurant.

Description: Frontera Cocina sign
Description: Frontera Cocina door

Volcom is an unknown name to us, but has unique door handles.

Description: Volcom sign
Description: Volcom door

Uno de 50 is unique – as are the door handles.

Description: UNO de 50 sign
Description: UNO de 50 door

There are more to share with you, next time.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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