A 25th Birthday Time Capsule

A 25th Birthday Time Capsule
Tony Caggiano

Sometimes I wonder just how my wife does it. I mean, we have a beautiful home and, even with two little boys doing their best to see otherwise, it is always neat and tidy. I can assure you that my Disney Addiction is more of a hindrance than a help to her in this respect.

This “issue” of mine makes it nearly impossible for me to throw away anything Disney, but most specifically, anything from Walt Disney World. I have saved every theme park ticket, annual pass, guest ID card and room key I have ever gotten there, as well as many, many items I have not listed here. While Charlene does her best to persuade me to dispose of this rubbish (as she may see it) I choose to store away these wonderful treasures for years, just so that I can someday open up a dusty old Tupperware container to explore a bit of my past.

The Time Capsule I have decided to open up today is a small one, but it is from one of my very favorite times at The World. From October of 1996 through 1997 both Walt Disney World and myself were celebrating 25 Years of Magic. You may remember a few weeks back I wrote about the rather controversial Castle Cake, well today I have a few items that I hope you will enjoy seeing from one of the trips I took that year.

The first item pictured is a vintage 1996-1997 Annual Pass, emblazoned with Sorcerer Mickey and the 25th Birthday insignia. It was at one time, like so many other passes of mine, my very best friend...if only for a year.

The second item is my Key to the World Card from a vacation I took in early 1997. That year was a particularly good Walt Disney World year for me as I was recently out of college and on my own. With this newfound freedom (accompanied by my first decent job) I went a little crazy and made six trips down to The World that year. Less a product of financial independence and more one of financial irresponsibility, these vacations assured that I certainly did enjoy myself in honor of my 25th birthday.

The last item in this time capsule is the rarest of the bunch, a wristband from the now largely defunct Pleasure Island. While I will admit that my trips to P.I. over the past few years have grown fewer and farther between, back in the early to mid 1990’s, my brothers and I LIVED on Pleasure Island. We would arrive there after park closing every night and close the place down. Looking at this wristband brings back many fond and fun memories of time spent at 8 Trax, Rock and Roll Beach Club and my personal favorite, The Adventurers Club.

While I could have very easily thrown these items out with the receipts and rubbish left from a vacation now ended, I instead chose to hoard them away, let them ripen a bit and now I have legitimate and wonderful heirlooms from good times of long ago… Like the old saying goes, “One man’s trash...”