When going back through my pictures to accompany this post, I found that I didn't take a lot; I spent much of my time at the Walt Disney Hometown Museum just soaking it all in. The stories about Walt as a child, about how he cared about Marceline as an adult, and the legacy his family want people to remember.
The museum is set up in several parts; one is about Walt, another is about collectibles, and another is about his family. They also have a part that is dedicated to miniature replicas of the attractions at the Magic Kingdoms.
The amateur genealogist in me was very interested in the family photos, letters, and snippets that his sister Ruth saved which formed the basis for the museum. I think about the boxes of things I've saved from my own life and those of my children and how no one will really care about those things, but Walt's family's foresight in keeping things of their past let us get a glimpse into the lives of Walt and his loved ones.
Walt's parents were Elias and Flora Disney.
I loved this picture of Walt's father - I can see Walt in him.
Here's a picture of Walt with his younger sister Ruth, the one who kept everything and was instrumental in creating the museum in Marceline. Walt couldn't start school until Ruth was old enough to attend as well. I can't imagine how frustrating that must have been for him being a few years older than the kids in the same grade as him starting out. The museum has a desk where Walt sat in the first grade. He carved his initials into it, nice and big. (Another person carved a smaller W D beneath the one Walt did.)
Here's where Walt graduated from elementary school and was ready for high school.
It was interesting to read some of the things that Walt wrote. This particular one caught my attention.
He was right, you know - there are a lot of things that older generations knew about that today's youth won't know - unless we teach them. I grew up on an acre of land, so I can use that as a spatial reference point for myself, but I know my kids don't have that reference. (They do know what happens when you put a seed in the ground.) Spending so much time in the Bread Basket of America on this trip, and seeing freshly plowed fields and crops popping up everywhere, it reminds me that we take so many things for granted about how we get our sustenance. Seeing trains and barges full of grain and other food products in their basic form in transit to processing plants and factories reminds me what a giant industry food source is in our country.
But I digress.
One of the neatest displays at the museum was the wall of clocks - each set to a Disney theme park time zone.
The Walt Disney Hometown Museum is in the old Marceline Depot. A fitting location for it based on Walt's affinity for the railroad. They tell a story of how Walt's uncle was an engineer for one of the railway companies that came through Marceline. When he would be coming into town, he would blow the train's whistle in a specific pattern to let Walt know he was on the train. If Walt was able, he would run as fast as possible to where the track came by the farm he grew up on - and his uncle would stop the train to pick Walt up and let him ride the last mile into town. While we were in Marceline, we went by the Disney farm to see the Barn (replica) and Dreaming Tree. I took this picture of the field between the barn and the train tracks and tried to imagine a young Walt Disney running as fast as he could to catch the train into town.
The ladies at the museum told us that there are at least 70 trains that pass through Marceline on a given day. The tracks run straight through town.
We enjoyed the museum and learning more about Walt and his family. We spent about two hours there. If you're a fan of Walt Disney, the man, then it's worth making the trip. Of course most of what you can see there you can find online or in books, but there's something special about walking on the same streets as the man himself.
Have you been to Marceline and the Walt Disney Hometown Museum? What did you think about it?
~ Cindy D.
No comments:
Post a Comment