For all of you who think I have lost it and love Disney far too much, you can thank Grandpa for that. I do believe I share his enthusiasm. Here is an excerpt from a letter that Grandpa sent to our family in December or 1973.
Well anyway we are 6 miles East of Dizney World and 6 miles West of Sea World which opened Saturday. This all on hundreds of acres like Dizney World. Sun. mamma and I went to this. $4.50 per person, this takes practically al day. Sure wish Liz could have seen this. There are 5 big main attractions, two which was real exciting which last about an hour. These have grand stands with seats like a ball park so you van see everything real well, so down in front there is these big pools with stadiums, one a whale show and another with dolphins and penguins.
The one with the dolphins put the basketball on the tip of his nose and walked on the cement till he was told to get in the water he would swim fast the length of the entire pool fast like lightning and shoot a basket, the other dolphins were standing on their back fins which were like legs and clap their front fins together as the audience clapped their hands, as they swam with the ball they would come up out of the water and go right through the air over a rope about 4 feet above the water and the ball didnt even wiggle, they said each one weighed over 4000 lbs, well so much for the dolphins.
So at 2 Oclock the whale show started same size stadium pools two blocks long and deeper, prettiest of all, shining black with snow white faces, as big as your back wall to front door, 4 ton. They understood everything they were told to do.
The trainer explained that the dolphins and the whale are a very kind and affectionate animals and they had a kid brush their teeth when they were told it was time to clean the teeth.
So then they asked for a young lady from the audience who would not be afraid to be kissed by a whale, so one raised her hand and they assured her she would not be harmed so she was told to come down and stand right at the edge, the big pretty white faced whale laid on the cement shore on the other side and then he was told to go and give this girl a nice smooch, the whale wiggled into the pool mind you, tow blocks long and swan fast as lightening up and back as to show off. Then he put his head above water and looked at the trainer and was told to give the nice young lady a nice big kiss. This big black and white whale came up along side this girl straight up in the air out of the water, all but his tail which probably kept him up so long and rubbed his mouth back and forth on the girls face, the crowd went wild as the dolphins were clapping with the crowd. So you see Flipper on T.V. is only one of many!