Walt Disney World

One of the most magical places that I had ever visited when I was a kid was Walt Disney World. I do not remember the exact year I went there but I do remember how fun and exciting it used to be. This place is where their cartoons and books I read growing up came to life. This place was nothing but pure fun. It has changed so much since it first opened in 1971; it has added other parks to its impressive roster.

The Walt Disney World Resort, sometimes shortened to Walt Disney World or Disney World, is the world's largest and most visited recreational resort. Located approximately 6 miles southwest of Orlando, Florida, the resort covers an area of 30,080-acre (47.00 square miles) and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels (excluding 8 that are on-site, but not owned by the Walt Disney Company), including a campground, two health spas and physical fitness centers, and other recreational venues and entertainment. It opened on October 1, 1971 with only the Magic Kingdom theme park and has since added Epcot (October 1, 1982), Disney's Hollywood Studios (May 1, 1989) and Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park (April 22, 1998).

There is more to Disney than just a bunch of parks; it now has many other attractions to the area as well along with two themed water parks.  But when looking back on being a kid, running rampant in the streets of the Magic Kingdom, there was not a happier time to be a kid. This place was packed with many different rides, adventures along with many types of different foods. This place was a dream come true, I visited this park many times as a kid and a teenager, but those times in the seventies were just amazing.

Smash Up Derby

I loved the “Smash Up Derby” set, you got two ramps, two ripcord cars and decals. I remember that when these two cars would smash into one another all the pieces would smash and fall apart. This was the neatest thing and we had countless hours trying to crash these two into another and watch them fall apart. There is a catch to all these toys, timing. Which being a kid, timing, was not always on my side or our side. We would sometimes rush to crash them and we would miss one another. But all in all, the idea of it was great and very entertaining.

Kmart And Zayre

When I was kid growing up, there was no Walmarts or Targets. There was Zayres and Kmarts.  Kmart and Zayres, both had almost every thing you wanted or needed at a discounted price. These were the only two good stores in our area that was close to us.

Kmart was famous for their “Blue Light Specials” and their popular, phrase "attention Kmart shoppers".  I remember hearing both of the phrases when I was a kid. I also remember sitting there with my mother while the spokesman for the “Blue Light Special” told us the ins and outs of what he was pushing on special. This varied from time to time and so did the time frame. I was a kid and having me sit there and listen to this guy rant and rave about some special, drove me into pure boredom. If it was not a exciting new toy at a special price, I wasn’t having any thing to do with it, which probably upset my mother to some degree.

I really cannot give any details about Zayres, it was open only for a short time in our area and reopened a little further away from the Apopka area.  I just remember they had an amazing toy section and that was about it.

Captain Kangaroo

I remember being glued to the T.V. every single morning awaiting the arrival of “Captain Kangaroo”.  I was there every single morning, watching this show. I now, do not recall much about the show but just that Captain character greeting me each and every morning.

This show was a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS from October 3, 1955 until December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running children's television program of its day. The show was conceived and the title character played by Bob Keeshan, who based the show on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children."

It had a loose structure, built around life in the "Treasure House" where the Captain (whose name came from the big pockets in his coat) would tell stories, meet guests and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets. The show was live for its first four years and was in black-and-white until 1968. The May 17, 1971 episode saw two major changes on the show; the Treasure House was renovated and renamed "The Captain's Place" and the Captain replaced his black coat with a red coat. In September 1981, CBS shortened the hour-long show to a half-hour and briefly retitled it "Wake Up" and moved it to an earlier time-slot, but when the show moved back to weekends in September 1982 it was back to an hour-long format. It was canceled by CBS at the end of 1984.

Loch Ness Monster

Another popular folklore growing up was the “Loch Ness Monster” as known as “Nessie”. The monster is a cryptid that is reputed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. The most frequent speculation is that the creature represents a line of long-surviving plesiosaurs. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next.
Popular interest and belief in the animal has fluctuated since it was brought to the world's attention in 1933. Evidence of its existence is anecdotal, with minimal and much-disputed photographic material and sonar readings. The scientific community regards the Loch Ness Monster as a modern-day myth, and explains sightings as a mix of hoaxes and wishful thinking. Despite this, it remains one of the most famous examples of cryptozoology. The legendary monster has been affectionately referred to by the nickname Nessie, since the 1950s.I did some research as a kid growing up but as neat as it sounds, I think it is just a folklore like “Bigfoot”.

U.F.O.'s

Shortly after the “Bigfoot” sighting is when the next weird thing happened in those woods. I was asleep in bed with my two dogs, Murphy and Marco when I heard the strangest noise outside my window. My bedroom was on the backside of the house facing the woods. I jumped up and pushed aside the curtains to see what was making the terrible noise. Right above the trees was this bright light it was making a terrible noise, not only was I up now the dogs were too. Both of my dogs were crazy barking at the window. I jumped out of bed and ran into my parents room, yelling at them to wake up, there is something going on in the woods.

The dogs were at the back sliding glass door, barking and going absolutely crazy over that sound. We all stood at that glass looking back into those woods, the light I told them was above the trees in now on the ground and that sound was not as loud was it was. But that did not stop those dogs from barking, it was driving them mad. My parents seemed a scared to open that glass door to let them out. We could not take them barking any more. Suddenly the light was out and that noise was gone. But that did not stop our dogs; they ran the fence line, barking back and forth.

We stood by that glass door that was now wide open listening. Nothing. We stood there for a while, my parents kept talking about an U.F.O., I have heard about them, but only on T.V. and I heard they were not real. But I will say, whatever landed in those woods that night/morning changed my views on them forever. I saw something bright and noisy land in those woods that is not something I made up, it was real. My parents witnessed that noise and saw those lights on the ground. We did not see any thing else but lights and that terrible weird noise. That noise was terribly loud and weird, like a high pitched engine and those lights was very bright near blinding. It lit those woods up in that area that they were in, I rounded up the neighbor kids to try and adventure out there without our parents knowing but every one was scared and even I was too but wanted to see where it landed.

But due to that “Bigfoot” scare months back, no one wanted to adventure out into those woods to examine that area where we saw those lights. I am not saying this was an U.F.O. but it was something along the lines of one.

Bigfoot

A popular folklore when I was growing up was about a creature named “Bigfoot” he is also known as “Sasquatch”. He is ape-like creature that inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid. The term "sasquatch" is an anglicized derivative of the word "Sésquac" which means "wild man" in a Salish Native American language.

Growing up, I saw and heard so many things about Bigfoot. From pictures of the creature to stories galore, but as a kid, you did not know what to believe. But I will say this for sure, one night when I lived on Harwick Drive, my views on this creature changed. I was sleeping in my parent’s bed due to a gang of men on a killing spree. Everyone was on high alert due to this gang; they were on every news channel as the ski mask killers.

I woke up to a noise outside; their bedroom was located in the front of the house facing the street. I sat up and looked out the window and saw a man in the road, he was stumbling and screaming out. I woke my parents and we all we peering out the window at him, he fell to the ground, screaming for help. I do not recall the exact events after this but I do remember all our neighbors were gathering in the street to help him. I remember standing in the driveway watching them gather around this man trying to comfort him; he was covered in scratches and blood. I never saw anything like it, he was rambling on about drinking beer in the woods when “Bigfoot” attacked him and his friend. He claimed he made it out of the woods and as Bigfoot grabbed his friend. He kept this up until the ambulance arrived on the scene and took him away. I remember seeing how shocked every one was, there was acres upon acres behind our housing development.

This changed my parents whole outlook on those woods; we were not allowed to play there any more and my mother would not even let me step foot back there to fly our kites. The road that dead ended into the woods was the stopping point. There was a good distance of road left to fly the kites on by not like the dirt road. This was the first of many weird things that happened in those woods, we also heard about one of the farmer’s cow missing along with some chickens. But who really knows the real story behind all of these rumors.

The one thing that I know is true was that man being attacked. Days and weeks after the attack, rumors swirled that he was just drunk and lost in the woods. Those cuts and blood was from tree limbs that he was running into while trying to get out of the woods. Some say he was on drugs and he was hallucinating making him think he was being attacked. But his friend, where was his friend? There were so many unanswered questions along with so many rumors, the truth was never veiled.