I’ve long felt an affinity for the work and writing of author Cory Doctorow, in particular his love of the classic Disney attraction Walt Disney’s Haunted Mansion. It’s a love I share. However, we came to our love in very different ways.
Doctorow’s found it’s seed in a visit to the Magic Kingdom when he was just six years old. He’s spun a great tale of his trip and describes the souvenirs he lost on the way home.
1977 was a vintage year for Haunted Mansion merchandise. At the little gift-shop, I mortgaged my allowance for the next five years on rubber fright masks, glow-in-the-dark headstone plaques that came with rub-on letraset letters for adding your own name, a “magic” flying ghost, a gaggle of glow-in-the-dark plaster skulls in a variety of sizes, glow-in-the-dark plastic fangs, and best of all, a set of cards with humorous portraits of uptight-looking adults that transformed into hideous monsters when you looked at them in the dark, revealing the transparent glow-in-the-dark paint overlaid on the pictures.
Doctorow has spent much of his life attempting to acquire those lost items and is now just one item away from completing his collection. Perhaps you can help him out.