Day 1298: A Closer Look

Since there's so much to see in Marceline, Missouri, I figured it might be fun to give you an extra glimpse inside the museum before my video on the town next week. The museum is in the old train depot, which offers plenty of space, and the majority of the artifacts inside were either donated to the town by Walt himself or to the museum by Walt's sister Ruth. It means the building is filled with unique pieces that you can't see anywhere else on earth! 

The above pictures are in one of the front rooms, which is filled with train memorabilia and artifacts from the film that premiered in Marceline, The Great Locomotive Chase. Just off of this room, you can enter the majority of the museum, which features the artifacts from Walt's sister. One of the room also features a documentary on Walt Disney, which is over an hour long, but offers a nice chance to sit and relax if you're there for more than a few hours. I happened to walk in at the perfect moment of the documentary, when Walt was giving the opening speech for Disneyland. Since I visited the museum on Disneyland's birthday, it seemed like fate that I would catch that portion of the film. 

The brick you see in the picture above is from the original school that Walt attended when he lived in Marceline. Walt had the town promise to keep the cornerstone of the building if they tore it down, and when they did, they were sure to listen. The stone, which is much larger than it looks in this picture, is sitting next to the school replication on the second floor, nearby the model of Disneyland. 

When I mentioned that the Train Depot houses the museum, I'm not kidding. Much of the original building remains, only refurbished to house the museum. The ticket office still stands, filled with extra artifacts that would have been normal during Walt's time in Marceline. Outside, you can still stand on the platform where Walt would as a child, watching one of 70 daily trains go by, and yes, they do go by. You can't spend more than a half hour at the museum without hearing at least one train pass, and it really brings the entire thing together. 

Oh, and if that wasn't enough Disney for you, just as you used to be able to do at Walt Disney World, you can buy a brick to be engraved and added to the path just outside the building. I loved the connection, whether they did it on purpose or not, and while I didn't purchase a brick this time, I hope to do so next time I'm there to continue to help support such a wonderful museum! 

As I said, I'll have a video out next week on more of Marceline, so be sure to keep an eye out for that too! 

Have a magical day!

Day 415: Disney Deja Vu

By definition, Deja Vu is "a feeling of having already experienced the present situation." We seem to have this all the time, right? I mean, often enough I'll suddenly feel like I've seem something before, more often than not in a dream. And I feel like it is safe to say that we will all, at some point in our lives, experience this.

But lately something weird has been going on...really since I came back to college. For lack of a better term, I have deemed it "Disney Deja Vu." So what's the definition of this? I honestly don't know, especially since it isn't always as much a situation as it just is a feeling. For example, here are some of my Disney Deja Vu moments from the past few weeks. We'll start with today and then go backwards as I can remember them:

1. Air

This honestly is going to sound really strange, but it's warm outside in Wisconsin (FOR ONCE IN OUR LIVES) and for some strange reason, despite the fact that it is still about 50 degrees warmer in Florida, it FEELS like Florida outside. Just something about the atmosphere reminds me of a morning at Disney. Maybe it's just the fact that it's morning, or that my brain is just going crazy from my medication and the warmer weather, but I swear it felt that way. It's nice.

2. Train Whistles 

I live in De Pere (at the moment because of college), and there happens to be a train track not far off our campus...meaning that whenever a train goes through, we can generally hear it, especially if you have your window open or are walking outside (Although if it's quiet enough outside and in your dorm you can often hear it through the window too). Of course, the whistle isn't quite the same, but it's kind of hard NOT to think about Disney when there are trains around.

3. Open Windows and Construction

This one confuses even me. Like a lot. But for some super strange reason it just is this way. The dorm I live in is right across the street from the new Science Building they are working on (or remodeling I guess). Either way, they've been working on it all year, and that means that at promptly 6:30 every morning, construction sounds begin. At the beginning of the school year it would wake us up. Now we just sleep through it. But because it's actually somewhat warm outside, and our dorm room has been like a sauna and my roommate and I hate that, we've had the window cracked for the last few days to keep it at a better temperature (leave it to us people from Wisconsin to open our windows when it's 30 degrees out). Anyways, so because our window is cracked, those construction sounds once again come into our dorm room, along with the quiet sounds of the city that surrounds our campus. Why does this remind me of Disney? I have absolutely no clue.

4. Saxophones

Ok, this one happened the other day and actually makes a lot of sense. I was sitting in the music lobby on Sunday morning, having just dropped my "kids" (High Schoolers staying with me for Winter Band Fest) off again and waiting for Megan and Katie to eat breakfast for real (because the High Schoolers had a limited one and I was hungry!) While I was waiting, some of the kids were warming up in the theory room that is just off the music lobby where I sit and work all day. They were playing just a few random notes, but they just happened to pick the one note that reminds me of one thing and one thing only: Disney Boats. You know, how they blow the horn as they come into the dock or pass another boat or basically go anywhere? Yeah...that horn. The saxophone sounded EXACTLY like it and I was just like "When did I get to Disney?"

Wondering what the sound was exactly? Here's a video with the horn on it if you skip ahead to about 1:15 (the horn is as 1:20 or 1:21 exactly).

5. Wind Ensemble

I honestly can never remember where it is or what song it is in (I should have made a note of it), but there was this one moment in one of our pieces that I was just like "DISNEY BUT I DON'T KNOW WHERE!" I'm kind of thinking it had something to do with Impressions de France again, but who really knows. Either way, it gave me some serious Disney Deja Vu.

I know there are a few more, but it's kind of hard to keep track of them when I don't write them down all the time. Either way, maybe it's just my medication (although when the saxophone was playing I wasn't on meds at all), or maybe I really am truly going crazy while waiting for March to get here, but I think I made a pretty fair point. Disney Deja Vu is a thing.

Have a magical day!