Here's a sibling WDW story that makes me laugh. Sorry it so long!! It's a blog entry that I wrote for another Disney site.
Don't Make Your Kids Eat Green Beans
How many of us remember being told Youre going to sit there until you finish those green beans. There are starving kids in Ethiopia who would love them! I remember that vividly. And I remember thinking Well then why dont you pack them up and send them over there. Theres no way Im going to finish my green beans! I dont remember whose will power wore out first, but I dont ever remember finishing my green beans either. Maybe my mind is just suppressing that memory to save me from the horribleness of it all.
With that in mind, dont ever trust your kids. Theyll always remember how you made them sit at the table until they finished all their green beans. Then when they get older, theyll learn that revenge is the dish thats best served cold, not green beans. Its been a year and a half and I still cant tell this story without laughing.
For those that dont know my family, which is just about everyone, during my early teen years, when we went to our tiny local amusement park, my mother was the rider. My father went once or twice, but mostly he just fed quarters into the water canon on the log flume.
"I don't do rides" he always said, "my back".
He wouldn't even ride the carousel. My dad, while a good guy once you get to know him, is very serious and stern. He was actually mistaken for a prison guard when I went in for emergency surgery a few years ago.
Anyway, it's January 2004. It's me on my third trip to Walt Disney World, my brother and his wife on their second, their two girls 4 & 1 and my parents on their first. We're at the Magic Kingdom for the day and the one ride my 4yo niece HAD to do was Big Thunder Mountain. She loves roller coaster so this is not a surprise.
When we get to Frontierland, my mom who can't ride the big rides anymore says she'll stay behind with those who don't want to go. So I ask, well, maybe I screamed "Who wants to go on BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN RAILROAD"??
The 4 year old, jumping up and down, says, "ME, ME, ME, ME, ME!!!" . . .
My brother (her daddy) says "I'll go" . . .
Then my dad says - "I'm gonna go too!!"
HUH???
My brother and I just about fell over. He hadn't been on many rides that day. Actually, from what we can remember, hes never been on many rides at all and we dont recall him ever going on a roller coaster before either.
We look at each other. Then we look at him. Thinking he may think its a real railroad and I know how he loves trains, I ask, "You do know, it's a roller coaster and not a train ride - right??"
"Yeah" he says, "looks like fun."
OK - this is about the point we begin to wonder where our real dad went to.
When we get on, my niece makes her daddy sit with Pop - she can sit with me, her rollercoaster buddy. (I love that girl!) When it's all over, my niece says she loved it. Again, were not surprised by that. We ask my dad how he liked it. He says it was great - what's next? So, we take him and the other over to ride Splash Mountain.
For my dad to go on these two rides is a monumental thing. Later in the evening, my brother told me that dad was "giggling" through the whole ride on Big Thunder Mountain. Dad . . . giggling . . . no way!! This Disney magic is pretty powerful stuff!!!!
The next day, we head to Disney-MGM Studios. Again, I've been there before, my brother's been there before, and then theres dad. He doesn't have a clue what's there or what's going on. Now he should have SOME sense of the place. Id only been talking about everything and showing them planning videos and giving them guidebooks to look at (with pictures for dad) for the past year and a half. But still, he remains totally clueless.
In the afternoon, my brother agreed to go on Rock N Roller Coaster with me. My niece wanted to go, but she was too short. And again, Dad is there with "I'll go too!!"
As we're standing out in the courtyard, I say to him "Are you sure?" as I look up over my head.
He says, "Yeah, I'll go with you guys" and doesn't notice the upside-down car Im staring at.
The standby line is about an hour and the Fast Pass return is also about an hour, so the three of us grab Fast Passes and we meet up with the others on a bench for an ice cream break and some people watching. A couple times during our wait, my brother and I look at each other and smirk. We tune into our sibling connection, what I call the green been connection. Without speaking a word, we both know this is a good time to get one on dad and dont say a word about whats in store for him. During the wait, however, one of us asks Dad, "Are you SURE you want to go?"
"Yeah, I want to go."
A few minutes later, "You know it's another roller coaster right?"
"Yeah"
A few more minutes later, "And it's a ROCK N ROLLer coaster"
"That's ok with me."
For the past 20 years, all hes really listed to has been Classical music, but suddenly it's ok with him? Again, where's our real dad?!?
Anyway, its getting close to blast off time and my brother and I start removing sunglasses, loose change, hats, etc., put them in our bags and then hang them on the stroller. Basically, anything that could fall off we took off. Dad joins right in and honestly still doesn't have a clue that it goes super fast and upside down.
So, our Fast Pass time arrives, we go through the line, the preshow, and get to the take off zone. My brother and I are tucking our lanyards into our shirts when the first car zooms off. We giggle at my dad's reaction.
"Dad, you can still leave if you want to. Are you SURE you REALLY want to do this?
"Yeah, looks like fun."
My brother and I are fighting to contain our composure at this point. Hysterical laughter is hard to contain, but dont worry, its not too far away.
I make my brother sit with dad again. After they get settled in, I step down into the car in front of them and casually say, "Hey dad, what does inverted mean?"
His eyes get big and just about shouts in slow motion
" U P S I D E D O O O W W N N ".
Now my brother and I burst out into hysterical laughter. At that point we were all strapped in and ready to go; too late to change his mind now! Dad survived and had a pretty good time. He said it was a smoother ride than Big Thunder Mountain but probably wouldn't be doing it again. Even now, when we tell this story, we can't help but crack up at how my dad went on his first inverted rollercoaster at 61 years old.
Just goes to prove two things:
1. Disney magic is mighty powerful stuff if people will just let go and have fun.
and
2. Siblings can get along great - especially if its to pull one over on their green bean loving parents.
Stupid Idol Show.........
I tried to get my license in NY and failed. I moved to PA and had to wait 6 months to become a resident and took the test and failed. I moved to Boston again waited 6 months and the tester at the end of the test asked me do you have a car? I said no I will be taking the subway. He asked me if I will always wear my seatbelt? I said yes. He said I passed.
So at 21 I got my driver's license and it was about 2 years after that I moved back to NY and got my first used piece of junker.
for you and your family
