Walt Disney World Beach Towel

Guest Blogger: Gaylin

My first trip to Florida, July of 1978, I was 18. The whole month visiting a friend and her family. One day she asks “Do you want to go to the Magic Kingdom for a day”? My response, “Sure, if it is not too expensive”. This was my first vacation away from my family, including my first airplane ride and much to my relief my first non-camping vacation.

A few days later 4 teenage girls, on a road trip to see Disney World. I had little clue what I was heading for, we didn’t yet have cable TV until I was 13 and my parents ruled what we saw. I had a few memories of the World of Disney but not much beyond that.

The shocker for me was how the magic hit right there on Main Street. I loved it, every ride, every line-up, the junk food and seeing characters, I was amazed. There was very little in the budget for souvenirs and my friends, being Florida natives, had little interest in shopping. I did manage to talk them into letting me look around a bit and I bought a beach towel. If memory serves me, it was $6.95.

As soon as I got home I started using the towel. I used it constantly, a new favorite.

The next summer, this lovely family invited me back! Of course I went and yes, we did go back to the Magic Kingdom for another day. This time I bought 2 towels.

I wore the first towel out by sheer overuse and then started using the other two. Thankfully I didn’t wear them out quite as much and then stopped using them because I wanted them to last.

This is the whole towel. Very thin cotton when compared to the plush, highly colored beach towels they make now:

The top of the towel with Pluto and Minnie all ready for the beach

The center with Mickey, hanging ten like the cool dude that he is

And the bottom of the towel, including the Walt Disney Productions logo

And, proving it was well made, the tag is still attached!

Finally, one of the few photos I have that proves I was really there, 1978, me and Tigger!!!

3 Responses to Walt Disney World Beach Towel

Artist without a Muse says:

April 12, 2012 at 11:19 pm

Gaylin, What a great story, I can't wait for your next post. I love that you were able to save your towels and you even found photos of your trips! Such great memories!

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Gaylin says:

April 12, 2012 at 3:47 pm

Hey Nick,
Writing this post has made me want to dig into my bin of Disney stuff and see what else might have survived for those 2 trips in the 70's!
I didn't realize until I took a photo of the tag that it said DLR and WDW on it.

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Nick Maglio says:

April 12, 2012 at 10:34 am

Great post Gaylin!
It's interesting that they used a “Disneyland and Walt Disney World” tag back then.
A big deal is made about the lack of original merchandise at the parks, and they just use Disneyland or Walt Disney World with the same graphic. This tag leads me to believe they did the same in the 70s.

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