Having just arrived back 2 nights ago from a quick trip to WDW, any of our faithful followers will with out a doubt ask “What? You didn’t stay for the D23 event, the merchandise and hoopla?”. No I didn’t, and in a way I’m kind of glad. Let me explain… This is part rant, part brain dump, and part nostalgia, so hang on!
My first trip to EPCOT Center was in 1986, just after the Living Seas had opened. These few years were probably the pinnacle of the EPCOT Center experience as we remember it. The purple Communicore carpets and sunken floors were still there…Sea Base Alpha was painted in ways that would inspire the youngest minds…Walter Cronkite’s voice amazed us on Spaceship Earth…inspiring music abound…buses drove around World Showcase as a form of transportation…neon tubes guided us through our imagination…simple icons took us to our favorite pavilions…CRT screens amazed us with touch screen technology…up to date and current Circle-Vision films flew us around the world…and Willard Scott wasn’t even dreaming of cutting the ribbon for Maelstrom on an ABC TV special.
Those that created EPCOT Center knew that they had an opportunity to do something special, a chance to create a place where “Tomorrow’s Child” could learn about the technology and opportunities that would be presented to them in the near future. It was an innocent promise of the future that was easily instilled on people of my generation and EPCOT Center encompassed everything in that promise that our small minds could possibly envision. World travels, the amazement and wonder of the future all in one place. Its quite possible that our generation may be the only generation to “get it”, or to remember it in a way that brings a chill to our bones.
This point is clear, we all miss EPCOT Center – what it stood for, what it was, how it felt and how it smelled (I must admit, the Listen to the Land queue still smells the same!). Plenty has changed over the years and quite frankly, we all know that the cost of keeping a vacation destination like EPCOT Center up to speed with technology is not only time consuming but it costs money and needs sponsors. We’ll save that discussion for another day. But why is a generation like our so drawn to technical marvels of the 80’s that by today’s standards are boring and out of date? The answer is rather simple and is the same feelings of those that grew up loving Disneyland of the 1960’s feel about today’s changes; its the same how your parents and grandparents remember their youth…Its not the “good old days”, but the good young days…
We were kids when EPCOT Center was at its peak, we don’t know a life with out the EPCOT Center from our memories and when we see those memories change right before our eyes it is downright depressing. Watching attractions get torn down feels like someone is ripping a memory out of your heart.
Ask every generation and they will tell you that things were better “back when I was a child…” This is part of life. Years ago, jaws dropped at the first sight of the Enchanted Tiki Birds magically singing all by themselves, in the 80’s building a roller coaster on a green touch CRT screen was unheard of, today we have attractions that are built on live action 3D computer generated creatures being controlled remotely by actors. While I walked through the current EPCOT Center with my son, and as he played Agent P around World Showcase it dawned on me that this is the technology he is growing up with. Wireless devices seamlessly integrated with functional devices…something my son will look back fondly on 20-30 years from now? Quite possibly.
Technology moves, expectations move, but your hunger for the past never seems to go away. We as humans want to relive what is familiar, what inspires us, and what was magical to us as a child. As we get older we realize that a certain attraction needs a coat of paint or that a fountain needs to be cleaned. When we were young we never saw that, everything was magic – and we pine to have a bit of that magic back. Our eyes have changed, we see more, we are wiser and the world has changed around us. Quite frankly, we don’t like it. We want what was familiar to us during our childhood – warm, inviting, safe and magical. If we could go back to EPCOT Center of the 80’s, would it be as we remember it, or would our wider eyes and wiser minds disappoint?
It is all a bit depressing I suppose, but I would rather have the memories than never have experienced it. And now, 30 years after EPCOT Center began, we are returning and watching our own children have a first time encounter with a new park, sprinkled with new technology, and some thrills – someday those will be their memories as they bring their own children to a different EPCOT Center.
In the end we have the memories and no one can take them – reliving memories sometimes is better than going back and doing something over again, only to find out, it wasn’t what you remembered. If there was one quote I could use to sum up how we should feel it is this:
Don’t frown because it is over, smile because it happened
Happy Birthday EPCOT Center!! Looking forward to another 30 years of memories!
Thanks for the encouraging words! It did happen…And i was there! well, for the 5th Birthday of Epcot Center in 1987 !
Hopefully we all have a picture or a video or even a brochure of our special time back in the golden years of Epcot Center !
Out of my group of friends, I’m the only one who went to the parks as a child and it’s difficult to put into words how awesome EPCOT Center really was. I think a huge part of it is the fact that then we were playing with technology that is only now becoming extremely commonplace. We weren’t just shown the future, we could play with it. We colored on screens with lightpens when the closest thing “in real life” was the gun that came with Nintendo – and we all know how accurate that was! Video conferencing for reservations and it’s only been recently that webcams became affordable for everyone – or integrated equipment. And of course all the touchscreens!
Epcot today is still pretty awesome, but it’s stuck in the present – like a lot of things.
Neil Degrasse Tyson has ranted a few times in the past years that the fact that we’ve stopped looking forward and dreaming of things like flying cars is hurting us – and I think it’s the same thing that’s hurting Epcot. He might have been talking about the space program, but I immediately thought of Epcot.
We’ve accomplished a lot in the past 30 years and it’s about time we start setting lofty goals for the next 30 years and start showing what is possible once again.
(And let’s face it – it’s hard to find pictures of the original ImageWorks because children AND adults were too busy having fun! The un-Disney-ness of the current incarnation is a rant for another day….)
EPCOT Center played a huge part in my childhood. My parents dragged us out of school to go a month after it opened (see my pics). It made a profound imprint on my childhood. Dream big, and anything is possible. I spent hours dreaming of incarnations of new ideas for amusement rides, and not ones that just thrilled, but educated. I wanted them to be full sensory adventures. Try doing that in Legos!
EPCOT is still my favorite of the parks. It’s more the memories of my family having so much fun, and it being the one and only big trip we made each year. I can sit back in certain parts of the park and still visualize my sister and I running to and from pavilions with so much excitement at what we just saw. The first step into The Land brings memories crashing back at me. It’s like I never left sometimes.
Thanks for your report. Next summer, I’m bring my two boys (they’ll be about 1 1/2) to WDW for the first time. I can’t wait to see how they view each of the parks for their first time.
Great article; I think you really hit the nail on the head with this statement: “If we could go back to EPCOT Center of the 80’s, would it be as we remember it, or would our wider eyes and wiser minds disappoint?”
Yes, it might be as we remembered it, but we’d be seeing it through older and wiser eyes. There is something about the nostalgia that tends to put a luster on things that we may not even have noticed at the time.
I too am a child of the 80’s and have fond memories of Epcot that I think many people just don’t “get.” I love the fact that Disney is recognizing the nostalgia piece a bit more lately and catering to us crazy hardcore fans a little better. It’s helping to re-live some of the greatest moments of our childhoods.
I remember reading about Epcot in the first Annual Report I received as a new stockholder back in 1976. As a 15 year old, all I could do was dream about what was to come at WDW. I remember the chill I got when “the 21st Century Begins Oct 1, 1982” was announced later on. Every year, the Walt Disney Productions Annual Report got me more excited about the future park. I was lucky enough to visit Epcot Center in December of ’82 as a 21 year old college student, and words still do not describe that visit. Thankfully, to this day, every time I pass under Spaceship Earth, I’m transported back to that first visit in ’82. Although the physical surroundings in the park have changed, I still feel the same sense of inspiration today, as I approach the Fountain of Nations. As we wish Epcot Center a Happy 30th Birthday, may we make a wish that the next 30 years continue to inspire not only Epcot guests, but also those in charge of this amazing park. It’s time for all of us to start dreaming again and fulfill the promise of Epcot.
Beautifully expressed. I have felt this for some time now. Not easy to realize that you’re no longer the target audience.
I think about the AT&T exhibit with the song, “Bringing the World Closer to You” and how amazing prophetic it was. I don’t know that EPCOT retains any of that sense of wonder at what our futures will look like. Maybe that song from “Meet the Robinsons” is right…”The Future Has Arrived”. I think we’re far less naive about what the future will bring than we were in the early 80s. Somehow we switched from Star Trek to Blade Runner.