Mom2my2daughters said:
Can I be really nosey and ask what job your dad had at Disneyland, and you as well!
I'm so interested in how they interview the characters, and all that stuff. Just curious what your job was and if you loved it!
Mom2, My dad worked in landscaping. He retired about four years ago after thirty years at the Park. He did a bunch of different things, but my favorite is that for awhile, he was in charge of the trees at Small World. This was about the time I was seven and my brother, three. He'd spend his entire shift listening to that song play over and over and over, he'd come home and my brother and I would be so proud to sing 'It's A Small World' for him over and over and over!
We had a Mickey head tree in our backyard for awhile because my brother and I bugged him so much for one.
I worked in Foods through college and a bit beyond. Bear Country (still have a hard time with that one -- Critter Country, and it's been what, over ten years?) Foods to be exact, Hungry Bear, Mile Long Bar (I know, I know), the Fort on Tom Sawyer's Island, and the French Market. I was primarily at HBR. This was during the time of the construction of Splash Mountain, so for about two periods of time, one about seven months (main closure and construction) and one three months, I be-bopped all over the Park taking whatever shifts I could get. I wound up working just about every food location in the Park, including both employees restaurants, but never the Club. During that time, a fellow CM from HBR was filming an underground movie (with supervisor permission) based on the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. We started filming before construction and wound up finishing the movie after construction. There are a few scenes that look totally different and we could tell what was filmed pre-Splash and post-Splash. My kids are always amazed that that area looked so different.
I loved working there, considered going into management for awhile. When I left in 1992, things were starting to turn, and it was kinda sad to see. But I have mostly good memories of my time at DL, and still have many friends from that time.