Prized Vintage Possession

Prized Vintage Possession
Tony Caggiano

Last week I wrote about my “25th Birthday Time Capsule,” which included an old annual pass, room key and a wristband from Pleasure Island. While looking through these items, as well as many others that I had discovered in the bottom of a box in the attic, I discovered one of my very favorite, most prized pieces of Disney World memorabilia, a complete, fully intact, 10 ride ticket book from Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.Over the years, I have seen tickets available of eBay from time to time. I have several partial books and even more individual tickets, ranging from A thru E, but what makes this ticket book special is two fold. Firstly, this ticket book is from 1975-1976 during the America on Parade celebration for the Bicentennial. Admittedly, I was only 5 years old at the time, but I still have some memories, however faded, of the parades that accompanied this celebration. Perhaps it will always remain a treasured time at Walt Disney World for me because these are the first memories I have of The World. While I have been visiting since 1972, I was only 6 months old on that trip, so naturally any memories I have about that trip, as well as those for the next few years, are from stories. But the memories from 75-76 are mine alone, and while sketchy at best, they are now and will always be the first things I can remember from Walt Disney World.The second thing that makes this ticket book such a prized possession is that it was an actual ticket book, which was purchased by my Dad back in 1975 during one of our annual family visits. While the condition of items like this is usually paramount in their worth, I have always found that vintage items from the parks and resorts always seem that much more special to me when they are from an actual vacation of mine.

Admittedly, I have a rather serious “issue” I am a chronic hoarder of anything Walt Disney World related. And yet, in an attic full of nearly thirty 15 gallon tubs of memorabilia, this single little item stands head and shoulders above the rest, as my most prized vintage Walt Disney World possession.