01 January 2008

Happy days can reappear

My dad went down to Florida between Christmas and New Years’ to visit his younger sister. During this trip they went through their sister’s and mother’s belongings. They wanted to organize and label all of the family history so that when my cousin Alexandra and/or I (we have other cousins, but they thought we were most likely to be the ones interested in the heritage of our family) go through all of the same material years from now, we’ll know what we are looking at.

This story seems interesting enough on its own, especially if you know me or my family, but doesn’t really serve much of a purpose here. Save that my aunt and dad found a couple of pieces of Walt Disney memorabilia that they sent along to me, and that is how I came to be in possession of these.




All of these postcards are part of the set of postcards that were available on the opening day of the Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney World. To be honest, the printings these postcards come from were available for a couple of years from opening day and through 1973 to 1976, and I don’t know exactly when my grandmother purchased the postcards, but they are still from the same set available on opening day. Many of these same images were used in later printings as well, but the back of the postcards were different, and they had different codes to identify them.

I could give you a lot more history on the postcards of Walt Disney World, and try to elaborate on just how to identify them, but there is already a fabulous resource out there for Walt Disney World postcards. So, rather than allowing you to get muddled down with my incomprehensible explanation go ahead and visit Walt Disney World: A History in Postcards. This site is full of postcard images, codes for verifying the time period the postcards were available, and great stories and long forgotten details.


Oh, the Gazette Club 33 isn’t decorated yet (don’t worry George, as soon as I get the room settled and decorated, I’ll post some photographs), but you can be sure that these are going to be framed together and end up in a prominent space on the wall!

1 comment:

Greg said...

Those are great postcards Ryan. I'm struck by how the trees have grown up at the Haunted Mansion since 1971. In the card the Mansion area seems so barren. They will be a nice addition to Club 33.