E Ticket

Magic Kingdom. Close to my heart. Close to my heart in many ways, but mostly because it was the location of our 'first real date.'  

I remember transportation tickets and E tickets.  Roger always went for the E tickets. No A tickets for his date, no only the best that he could afford. And back in the day, that transportation ticket was only around $6. 

I saw this post last night - original monorail now for sale on Ebay. There is just something so sad about that. I guess there is not a monorail graveyard anywhere.  I actually suggested that a friend get it, add pontoons, and float that baby on the Butler Chain. Now, that's MY kind of boat ride - fully air conditioned, of course. You would not even need sunblock!  Roger would laugh about that.  He would probably suggest putting it on a flatbed chaise and getting Bo to retrofit it so he could drive it to work. He liked really old vehicles. 

I imagine we rode on that very monorail car a lot of times! Things get old and you retire them out. That is kind of sad, really. It makes me think again about how Roger really went against the norm. At 71, most people would consider him old enough to be retired, too old to be working. He never considered himself old. He was always determined to keep up with his "troops." 

When I think about it, even though he left for work every shift, expecting them to retire him out, I realize that I should have probably had more contact with his Chief about that. Turns out that there was no plan to retire him out. I would have been waiting FOREVER for that party! 

Unique. Yes, Roger never called himself creative or unique, but he was. Who keeps working when logic says you can chill all day and bask in the sunshine?  Or in my case...travel somewhere in the air conditioning.  He really had the perfect career for him. One day on, two days off. He could do that 24 hour thing. And evidently he did not take the opportunity to sleep when he had it at work.  He always had so much energy.  Not hyperactive type energy - but just 'keep on going' type energy. I guess he just paced himself. 

Even at Disney, he paced himself.  He kept us moving and would then sit or stand and enjoy the experience. In recent years I found myself reminding him to slow down and walk WITH me and not ahead of me. Today....I'd love to be chasing after him even if he walked too fast.  

At least I still have my memories of those days 41 years ago when we took the Magic Kingdom SLOWLY.  We used all of the tickets (officially "coupons A-E") but always seemed to acquire more of the E Tickets. The ones that meant the ride was special, new, unique, exciting.  

Roger's Lesson: Oh, I know he would say that we had an E Ticket Life.  

 Indeed! And I wish he had taken it more slowly, but I also expect that he was showing me that there was something better at the end of it, so keep moving and see it all while you are here. 


So now I will get up off this couch.