Jim's Guts

Disney Custodial...

Even before I "married into" Disney Custodial, I've always had a great deal of respect for that part of the Disney team. The folks in Custodial work very hard, mostly unseen or worse unnoticed, to keep the Parks neat and clean. They do everything from sweeping, to cleaning the restrooms, to the really dirty work of cleaning up the occasional "Code V" (use your imagination). All the while, they're happy to stop and take a guest's picture or answer questions, so it's nice to see them starting to get some recognition.

Here is a really cool video about what their doing at the Magic Kingdom Park in Walt Disney World, hopefully it'll make its way west soon...

How we met...

As of this afternoon the Lovely &Talented Mrs. Smith and I will have been married for 18 years, so I thought I'd share the "Origin story" with those who might not be familiar - The "where" part is easy, we met while working at Walt Disney's Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. As for the "how", well the L&T has a slightly different version of this story, but because this is my blog this is how I saw it (she has her own if she wants to tell her side of it), but first here's a look back about 20 years ago...

The L&T walking her beat in New Orleans' Square

 
Yep, that's me at the bow of the Davey Crockett Explorer Canoe on the Rivers of America

Continuing...Here's how it really happened - I was working Guest Control on the Splash Mountain attraction (basically trying to keep guests in line and happy along with answering the random "where is the nearest bathroom" or "what time are the fireworks" questions [and yes, I still know the answers]) when I saw this cute girl from Custodial walk by. Now one of the great things about working at The Park is that everyone wears name tags, so it was easy for me to say "Hi KRIsten" which promptly got the l&t (she was lovely and talented, but she wasn't The Lovely & Talented) attention. She whirled around and said "What does the name tag say?" (hint - It wasn't Kristen). I stammered and sputtered a bit (more than normal) and apologized which made her smile. We chatted for a moment and got back to our respective duties.

Either that day, or shortly there after, we both happened to be in the break area near the Haunted Mansion attraction, and I was probably trying to stretch out my shoulders when the L&T offered to massage them. I gladly accepted, and while she was working on my back I said "I'll make you dinner, take you out to dinner, heck I'll give you money so you can take someone else out to dinner" to which she replied that she'd let me make her dinner. We had our first date a couple days later (a whole different story) and the rest is history.

Happy anniversary Mrs. Smith, it's been a wonderful ride...