EeyoresButterfly wrote:One time I was working at DAK, it was the last set of the day, and the Captain ran backstage asking me how quick I could be ready. Apparently Minnie had been hugged by child with chickenpox so they immediately pulled her off set (that costume went to the burn bin.) That was a fun day, that was the day I found out my stepgrandmother died- about 10 minutes before the last set. I wanted to go on just because I was in total shock and being on set would allow me time to not think about it. I ended up getting a big GSF for that one.
Wow, they'd actually destroy a costume if they knew it had come into contact with pox? That's amazing! Good for Disney (warm fuzzies there!)
((((((Hugs))))))) for going on with the show that day. You have no idea how many memories you made for families who may have been on their only ever trip to WDW that afternoon. . .
THIS kind of thing is why I love CM's. Character friend CMs have special place in my heart especially.
I was on a monorail last trip and ended up in a car with a load of attendants and friends of characters. I found out through some careful question-asking (we were the only ones in the car with them) and when I figured out that one was a friend of Mickey I grabbed her hand and said "God bless you, no one knows how hard your job is." She gave me the most beautiful smile, i won't ever forget it.
No one will
ever know all that those friends of characters go through!!!
Sometimes, though, work can help at hard times I know that even from my own small Disney experiences.
When I was a store CM (there were less than 10 stores in existence back then) I came to work after immediately finding out that someone I cared for a lot had just committed suicide.
My favorite manager saw the look on my face when I arrived backstage- and immediately took me aside knowing I wasn't me.
I blurted out what happened, and of course he asked me if I wanted to go home. I told him no- that the best place for me to be was work that day. He asked me if I could go on stage smiling and I promised him I would, and I did.
He promised he'd bring me something the next day, and he did.
It was a picture of a section of the Vietnam war memorial where someone had left a sign about suicide. It said, and I wish remembered exactly the picture disappeared with a lot of my things that were meaningful to me after my divorce :mad: something like "We will sing your songs, we will dream your dreams, we will finish your work."
I will
always love that manager deep in my heart for the kindness he showed to me. I had an incredibly sheltered upbringing and I was, I imagine, a lot like the girl in
Enchanted when I got that job (I haven't seen the movie yet but from what I've seen of the previews, that could have been me). I was completely unprepared for the real world.
Years later, I only wish I could tell him how much his kindness meant to me, and still means all these years later. Joe, wherever you are, man, I adore you, still. And guess what? I found my way through the big world- and I still have pixie dust in my eyes :)
