Today is the 20th Anniversary of when “Walt: The Man Behind the Myth," a TV special about Walt Disney, airs as part of "The Wonderful World of Disney" on ABC Network on September 16, 2001.
I remembered watching it when I was much younger when it first aired on that day. Needless to say, I own the documentary on DVD.
As in my previous blog entry, I wanted to this fun fact to be a segue into speaking about my feelings over the closing of the Disney Store in the Burlington Mall in Massachusetts. From the time I visited that Disney Store location on September 3, just thirteen days ago, I’ve become daft with nostalgia. I’ve been listening to Disney songs, watching YouTube videos of people talking about their love for all things Disney, reviews of Disney films, and the history of the Disney company and of its theme parks and attractions.
The Disney Store itself was scheduled to have its closing day on September 15, which was yesterday, and I thought that since I wasn’t working on that day, I would go to travel to the Burlington Mall, arrive early for their opening ceremony, buy some items from there, and return home. However, there was a change of plans. I was scheduled to be at another place for my new job (seasonal) to supplement my income to do some paperwork. So here is where the story of my journey of September 15th begins. I woke up and took the bus to the place where I’m going to start working next week, but due to some error on their computer, I was asked to come in today (which was resolved). I agreed to do so. This was fine because that meant that I got to be at the Burlington Mall much earlier than scheduled.
The whole journey from the place
where I will soon work to the Burlington Mall would take a little more than two
hours since I would be taking public transportation. On the way there, the opening
song of the 1994 acclaimed film of “The Lion King” called “The Circle of Life” was
playing within my mind. I was also thinking about how the events would play out
for the closing ceremony. I imagined that after I made my final purchases in
the last hour (intended to buy gifts as Christmas presents for friends), the
whole cast would come the front of the store, thank everyone for coming and for
their patronage, and wave goodbye as they closed the store as the shutters went
down. The Disney Store in Massachusetts would be closed for the last time.
When I arrived at the Burlington Mall, it was the late afternoon and the sun brought in the golden hour. Since I had not eaten all day, I chose to eat at the food court before visiting the store. After ordering and eating food, I went to the bathroom to change. I wore my Captain America long sleeve t-shirt (with the shield), along with a Captain America CO-VID mask. I remember the complements I received last time so I wanted to repeat that. I was going to walk around the inside of the mall before heading inside the store to help with digestion and because I did not want to spend three hours there and be thought of as obsessed and weird.
As I began to walk past The Disney Store, I noticed something was wrong. The doors were not opened.
Upon closer inspection, I saw that the store was empty and devoid of life. It had a little bit of the magic left with its murals that I wanted to take better pictures of for my final visit and of the small bejeweled castle. For a few minutes, I sadly took photos of the empty store.
Everything was gone. After this, I
realized there was no point in staying longer than I needed to. I bought a
fruit juice drink at the food court as I did last time, went outside to the
nearest bus stop, and waited for the bus to arrive. Some questions went through
my mind. “When was the actual closing day of the Disney Store in the Burlington
Mall?” I thought, “did they have a closing ceremony? What really happened on
that day?” These are questions to answers I will never know. The bus soon
arrived, and I got on and returned home sometime later. I took my time as I made my
journey home, lamenting on the fact that I missed the closing day of the Disney Store and that I travelled all that way there for nothing.
And so, my story about my journey to the last Disney Store in Massachusetts has ended. It’s the end of an era. I think the reason I felt so sad was because I wanted to relive the happy parts of my childhood and have some closure. There’s an old saying, “You can’t go home again,” which means that you can’t fully recover and recreate the past. I will come to terms with the store’s closing in time and move forward from there.
In the meantime, I ordered some DVDs of some of the Disney movies I enjoyed, to view them when I have spare time on the weekends. I even ordered the first season of a Disney animated series called “Gargoyles,” which I used to watch as a child. I kept telling myself that I was not a Disney fan, but the truth is that deep down I hadn’t realized that I still enjoyed it after all this time as an adult. It took a visit to the Disney Store for me to realize that. I’m glad that I still have those memories deep down inside me and I thank Disney for helping to supply that.
To conclude this blog entry, I wanted to use a quote from either a Disney film or from Walt Disney himself. After some searching, I found small piece of dialogue from “The Lion King” from my favorite Disney character which is a wise lion named Mufasa as he was trying to convey to his young son/cub named Simba in both the magnitude of his future responsibilities and the importance of humility in their brief walk for the morning lesson:
Mufasa: "Everything you see exists together in a
delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all
the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope."
Young Simba: "But, Dad, don't we eat the antelope?"
Mufasa: "Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die,
our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all
connected in the great Circle of Life."
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