During Spring Break 1990, when I was 9 years old, my dad, mom and I took our first and only trip to Walt Disney World. It was quite the whirlwind trip. We drove down one day....and I mean that it took the whole day to get from Geneva County to our hotel in Kissimmee, FL, (As an aside, I have no clue how it took that long to get there.) We spent one day in the Magic Kingdom and came back the day after.
While at the Magic Kingdom, we rode few rides. My parents were not theme park people. Most memorably, we did ride the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride, which was retired many years ago.
Truly unsurprisingly, if you knew Randall Hall, no Donald Duck hat was purchased.
This past June, Jessica, Abby, and I took our first trip to Walt Disney World. What was at the top of my purchase list as a 41 year old man? You guessed it: a Donald Duck hat.
No, I had not held a grudge against my father for 30 years over a Donald Duck chapeau. I was not bitter and mostly never thought about it again. Really, it was more like bringing things full circle, for me.
After I got the hat, I thought about it a lot. About why it was important to me to get it, and also why I didn't get one when I was 9.
My family has never been rich. My family, for the most part, wasn't even what people would call comfortable. My grandfather never owned property. As daddy grew up, they moved often and lived in many different houses along a 5 mile stretch in southern Geneva County. My grandfather was a tenant farmer: every time he changed employers, they changed houses, to live on property owned by the new employer.
There wasn't a lot of "extra" to go around for frivolous things. Like Donald Duck hats.
My dad was, for most of his life, very practical and pragmatic. There wasn't a lot of sentimentality attached to things. Souvenirs weren't practical.
There was a part of me that questioned why a ten dollar character hat was a deal breaker.
Daddy would say to me that he didn't gamble, that he wouldn't even play penny poker because he didn't want to lose a penny. It wasn't so much about the hat or the cost as it was a mindset. A practical mindset that considered the souvenir as wasteful.
As a thought about the wonderful vacation Jessica, Abby, and I were on, I realized something. The same mindset that was passed down to me was what had allowed us to have the ability to be on that vacation. That allowed us to buy Abby (and ourselves) the souvenirs and tokens of remembrance that we wanted (and not be broke when we came back).
I have, over the years, realized a few things about how we think of our parents. There are many times that we are resentful of our upbringing. We look at our childhood disappoints and inwardly criticize our parents for how they raised us, how they didn't provide EVERYTHING we wanted.
Well, we don't need EVERYTHING we want. And the lessons they teach us, the things they instill in us are for us to be better.
So really, Daddy (and mama) are the reason this 41 year old has a Donald Duck hat from Walt Disney World.
Daddy, Thanks for the hat.
