What A Woofle-Snoofle Is, and Isn't

[TowerDude]

In ten days, my DDs, 16 and 14 and I will be at the World, POFQ, to be precise.
How many more chances do we have? A soon to be junior in high school, a soon to be freshman, and their Disney addicted Dad. A trip postponed due to Buffalo's horrific October storm that wiped out spring break from some schools.
And here wa are, braving absurd crowds to be where we want to be...again. To add to our growing cache of extraordinary memories that include Grandpa and Aunts and Uncles and cousins....and this time...just us. And that's fine.
So - to the title. Many many years ago, my father, who will be 90 in December began telling tales of a creature called Willy "O"Grady Woofle Snoofle" to my sisters. From what they tell me, he told them these stories to get the girls to sleep on the ride back home from out East on Long Island.
My personal memories of Willy, one of the good guys, and the Grumples, the bad guys, were more of maral and lesson. Having lost my allowance, I got to hearthe story of how Willy lost his, and so on.
And many years ago, my Dad stopped telling the stories, telling my sisters and brothers and I it was our turn. But - nobody could tell them like him.

 

[TowerDude]

My Dad surely does this better than I but, supposedly, Willy O'Grady Woofle Snoofle and his family lived in the Initial Tree in Flushing, NY, where we grew up. I suppose every town has an Initial Tree, the one where everybody who is anybody carves their initials, or "I Love Becky", or whatever.
When we asked Dad to describe Willy, he said he was only a couple of feet high, and looked something like a beaver...with a longtail that curled up his back over his head, and tapered to something of a point just above his eyes, soit wouldn't get in the way of his sight. The very frustrating thing was that we never got to see Willy growing up. Dad said he was pretty shy, until you got to know him. So when I fell, climbing the neighbor's fence and came home crying, Dad said, "Willy was just here, and he said he fell from that same fence yesterday!"
Or when my rubber ball went down the sewer it seemed that somehow Willy O'Grady had left a quarter under the milk box for just such an emergency. I guess you can begin to understand how Willy became a part of our family.
And then, in '92, Willy took the next obvious step. He went to Disney World.

 

[TowerDude]

Someone had the brilliant idea of "taking" my father to Disney for his 75th birthday. And so, we planned , and saved, and saved and planned ,and we went - the entire family. All eight kids, each brother or sister in law, and every grandchild. I do not know how we did it, but we did.
Before we left, a friend of a friend drew Willy on top of Spaceship Earth and silk-screened t-shirts for us that said something like, "Murt Turns 75! The Lawrence Family At Disney World"...or something like that. We all wore the shirts tothe Hoop De Doo revue, we all had sweaters on over them on the way over - when we finally got to the tables we all "disrobed" to show Dad the shirts and give him his own. The CMs were awesome - they took him away and he had a part in the show himself, as Davey Crockett's ghost. It was pretty silly.
I will mention that he upstaged me days earlier at the bar at Port Orleans by giving each of us t-shirts of his own making that said, "Woofle Snoofles are Real".
And they are.

 

[Avivasmom]

HOW COOL... that you are going with your girls!! I am such a daddy's girl still at the age of 38. And my dad lives right near Flushing in Whitestone and I went to UB.

My dad, me and my DD are going to Disney in January for Aviva's 7th birthday!!

Cannot wait to read more of your reports!!

 

[TowerDude]

I guess it is true what they say...the World is Small.
My sisters went to St. Agnes.....and I work right down the block from the North Cumpus, on Sweet Home.
I'll have more up on this tonight, and thanks for reading.

 

[TowerDude]

My sister Rosemary decided somewhere during the planning of the '92 trip that we should all write Woofle-Snoofle stories and share them at Disney. her family started this....chain of events, beginning with problems in the Monorail maintenence shop, where Monorail Pink gkept going on the fritz. It turns out that the grumples were sabatoging the monorails in the hope of getting Willy O'Grady fired fired, so that the WS's would leave Disney. The grumples were quite concerned that after the recent (then) Muppets activity around Disney, next would be an explosion of Woofle-Snoofle attractions. No self respecting grumple could stand for that.
So we each added our parts to the story, and mailed tghem back and forth...and after our big family dinner at the Hoop, we went back to my sister's family's lodgings at what was the Disney Institute and read all the stories to each other there.
We had a really good time.
One thing I will always remember from that trip is asking my father, on the way home, if he saw everything he wanted to, and he said, "Yes. All the way from Claire (my eldest sister) to Brigid (then, the youngest gradchild.)
We've taken my father back, since, but it's just past the point of possibility, now, and we'll miss him this trip.

Other folks who read here know that I am trying to make a Dream happen, without the help of the Dream Team. I have tickets for La Nouba, and the elder DD has no clue - and I plan to surprise her with them at dinner the night we will attend.
I have a couple of cool Disney store t-shirts for both girls.....we'll spend some pool time at Port Orleans.....I look forward to the time.
We have our favorite things to do, like everyone here. I am reminded of ZZUB when I think of Wishes, I thank Mel HappyHaunt for telling us about paintbrushes, I look forward to some very bad Coca-Cola drinks, and will smile, thinking of Utah's picture in her siggy.....
The DISers make it fun, and we'll have an LGMH on the backpack...so look for us.

 

[TowerDude]

My sister Rosemary decided somewhere during the planning of the '92 trip that we should all write Woofle-Snoofle stories and share them at Disney. her family started this....chain of events, beginning with problems in the Monorail maintenence shop, where Monorail Pink gkept going on the fritz. It turns out that the grumples were sabatoging the monorails in the hope of getting Willy O'Grady fired, so that the WS's would leave Disney. The Grumples were quite concerned that after the recent (then) Muppets activity around Disney, next would be an explosion of Woofle-Snoofle attractions. No self respecting grumple could stand for that.
So we each added our parts to the story, and mailed tghem back and forth...and after our big family dinner at the Hoop, we went back to my sister's family's lodgings at what was the Disney Institute and read all the stories to each other there.
We had a really good time.
One thing I will always remember from that trip is asking my father, on the way home, if he saw everything he wanted to, and he said, "Yes. All the way from Claire (my eldest sister) to Brigid (then, the youngest gradchild.)
We've taken my father back, since, but it's just past the point of possibility, now, and we'll miss him this trip.

Other folks who read here know that I am trying to make a Dream happen, without the help of the Dream Team. I have tickets for La Nouba, and the elder DD has no clue - and I plan to surprise her with them at dinner the night we will attend.
I have a couple of cool Disney store t-shirts for both girls.....we'll spend some pool time at Port Orleans.....I look forward to the time.
We have our favorite things to do, like everyone here. I am reminded of ZZUB when I think of Wishes, I thank Mel HappyHaunt for telling us about paintbrushes, I look forward to some very bad Coca-Cola drinks, and will smile, thinking of Utah's picture in her siggy.....
The DISers make it fun, and we'll have an LGMH on the backpack...so look for us.

 

[SweetTalk101]

AHHH. Sorry, I'm very excited- we're leaving in two days.

Hi, I'm Tower Dude's Daughter (oh, the alliteration) DD14, aka Megan. I am sooo psyched, and the best part is, big sis has no idea about La Nouba. She has always looooved Cirque Du Soleil, or as her band instructor calls it- Circus Ole. That's right, it's gone from being French to Spanish.

And I will find a paintbrush this time! DD16 found two, then kinda casually dropped hints for me until I noticed the second. Dad found one too.
I wiilllllll *echo echo*