ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 17, 1996 TAG: 9611160001
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
When Jeremy Smith climbed into his white Mazda in September and aimed it at Florida, it wasn't for a vacation, really. It runs a bit deeper than that.
Maybe pilgrimage is the right word.
Smith's most-recent trip was for Disney World's 25th anniversary celebration Oct.1.
He's lost count, but he guesses it was his 45th visit to Disney World. Granted, he grew up in Florida. But he's lived in Virginia for 13 years. And he's 25.
You might say he's a bit goofy about the place.
"Yeah, it's really strange," he said. "Part of it's just growing up there - you went because it was there. But another part's like spiritual or something."
Walt Disney World and Smith were born 10 months apart.
The park opened in October 1971. Six-month-old Smith was there in June, when government employees and their families were let in for a dry run. His dad was an air traffic controller at Tampa International Airport.
The now-sparsely haired Smith was then a thick-maned, stroller-bound boy parked next to a giant golden Pooh bear.
"I don't remember a whole lot," he said. "But I do remember I was petrified of Winnie. I'm still kind of blank on the specifics, but the characters are one of the things that's burned in there."
He was there again at age 4. The memory's captured in a faded color Instamatic snapshot. Smith is standing next to Goofy, wearing a jean jacket, sporting a Nicholas-from-``Eight-is-Enough'' haircut. He's clutching a stuffed Mickey Mouse he would keep well into his teens.
There's another picture from the same trip. Pluto has one paw around him and one on an unidentified girl. Pluto is looking at the girl. Young Jeremy is fixed on the Kodak. The three are standing outside It's a Small World.
Which it is, sometimes.
It also was an increasingly crowded one, as far as Jeremy's father was concerned. Crowded enough to pull the Smith family out of Florida and away from a theme park Jeremy had come to see as a second home.
The family visited the park three or four times a year during the boy's formative years: on outings and as escorts for in-town Northern relatives.
"We all enjoyed going," he said. "Every time it was different and special. I don't think it was ever like a real theme park to us, not like a Busch Gardens or something like that. It's just the atmosphere. It's not so much the rides, it's more the imagination."
Each year Jeremy's father would spend half of his four-week vacation taking the family on trips in search of a more liveable town, "as far away from the sprawl as we could get," Jeremy said.
The family inspected Arkansas and the Carolinas before settling in Craig County in 1983, then Blacksburg in 1987.
Disney-wise, Smith's high school years in Southwest Virginia were a downtime. He drifted into other interests: He played sports and, after an injury, kept stats for the teams.
But a high school graduation gift in 1988 pulled him - like Michael Corleone in "Godfather III" - back into the family.
"I was given this Mickey Mouse watch by my parents with a note that said Disney basically brought you up and helped you as a child. Hopefully it'll help you in college and as an adult," he said. "So that started me back."
Since then, he's averaged one 13-hour trip a year, sometimes two. And he always drives.
Chief among the memories from the college years: a chance encounter with Regis Philbin at the restaurant in Epcot Center's version of Japan.
"He signed an autograph for me that read: "Thank you for harassing me at dinner, Regis."
The sun, the beach and the opposite sex - perennial spring-break favorites in Florida - never held much sway for Smith.
"It was more interesting to go to Disney to kind of rekindle that childhood than it was to go to the beach," he said. "That's not relaxing to me."
But Walt Disney World, which draws more than 35 million visitors each year according to industry estimates, was.
"The beliefs go back to Walt Disney himself," said Smith, who quotes often from the Gospel according to Walt and remains a true disciple, in spite of recent attacks on Disney's corporate character.
"He wanted a place where everybody can enjoy themselves. The way he put it was that it would be a place where parents and kids could enjoy themselves together. Entertainment that has morals.
"You drive your car there. Park it and don't see it again for a week until you're ready to come home," he said. "Where else can you do that? It's a safe haven."
Outside The Kingdom, Smith's world has proved less ideal. There was an unfinished degree at Radford University and, in January 1995 both a brief marriage gone bad and a demotion at Radio Shack, where he worked as a manager.
But that's started to turn around as of late. There's Ginger Ohleger, a new love interest. Things are looking up at the Shack. And then there's that 25th anniversary thing.
"Since I was there so close to the original opening, I wanted to go back," he said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. At least for another 25 years."
While down for the anniversary, Smith heard a 1,000-piece marching band, "definitely a loud thing."
His day in The Kingdom stretched from the special early gate opening time of 7:30 a.m. until 2 a.m., when the nightclubs at Disney's Pleasure Island closed. After four hours of sleep he was at it again at 6:45 a.m.
Ginger the girlfriend, 24, a secretary with Virginia Game and Fisheries in Blacksburg, is OK with Smith's fascination with things Disney.
"When he's there, he's a completely different person: He's got energy," she said. "You know the normal everyday things that get everyone down? They don't exist there for him. It's really a fun experience. Imagine a child with unlimited energy - a child who never needs a nap."
Smith has also become a pack rat when it comes to The Mouse.
"Ginger knows if it has a Disney trademark on it, it's coming home," he said. "I collected things. But after the divorce I went completely off the deep end. Mom said if I worked this hard at anything else like I do for Disney, I'd be president of a company."
The growing inventory includes magazine articles. Toys. Three Mickey Mouse ties he rotates for work. A plastic Mickey Mouse clip to hold them in place. A Disney diver's watch with an emerald green face and the well-known outline of The Mick's face in gold. A gold signet ring with black onyx and a gold Mickey face. And six Disney key chains he keeps on the ring that holds the keys to the car in which he migrates to Florida.
He's aware his obsession is not as well-received outside the friendly confines of The Kingdom. One hint: The guys at work joke that the best way to get his attention might be to wear Mickey Mouse ears.
"Yeah, I'm the freak, the town freak," he joked. "I don't do too much else. I play banjo, but I don't do that as much anymore. Disney's pretty much it."
He spends a lot of his free time on-line, looking for new information. His shut-down sound for Windows 95: "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo," a song Mickey sang in a talent show in an early cartoon. He's bookmarked as many as 25 Disney-related sites on the World Wide Web. He checks employment postings. And he's found a G-rated chat room, "safe for children and adults, just like Walt Disney would have wanted."
When he's not on-line, Smith is a management trainee at the Blacksburg Radio Shack. He answers the phone there with a polish and patter that, in another life, might have landed him a job as one of Disney's silver-tongued Jungle Cruise tour guides.
But in this life, it makes for little more than a snappy way to show enough Shack spirit to earn the reins of his own store.
Better yet, he'd like to land his dream job, one that blends love and labor, Disney and retail: He'd like to work in The Disney Store that opened in Roanoke's Valley View Mall on Nov.1. Or maybe at a Radio Shack in Central Florida. Or maybe even a gig (easy now) in The Magic Kingdom itself.
But most of those who toil amid the manicured splendor of The Kingdom do so first as serfs. And those entry ranks involve saying things like, "Keep your arms in at all times" and "Exit to your left" a bit more often than Smith would like.
But his attitude is starting to change. It has a little something to do with Florida sunshine and an autumn that came cool and early to Southwest Virginia this year.
"Me and Ginger now are looking at more entry-level kinds of things," he said. "Just something so I can get in the area. I'm just wanting to get back to the warm [weather]."
Recent trips to Central Florida have included visits to Disney's employment office. They have his resume. They haven't called. Yet.
"Living there and working at Disney would probably be the most enjoyment I'd have in life," he said. "I enjoy seeing people happy, and you'd never have to deal with the same person twice. Everyone there is on vacation, so they're happy. And if they aren't, they'll be gone the next day."
In the meantime, he has the trips.
If you go, Smith recommends getting a room in The Kingdom.
"Always," he said. "It completes the package."
And don't worry about repetition, Smith said, because things at Walt Disney World change.
Take, for example, the new Mickey Mania parade he and Ginger saw in August. "That brought tears to my eyes, almost. I really had a good time at that."
And unlike the real world, the change at Disney World is usually positive.
"It's just overwhelming," he said. "The presentation. The rides. The stories. All the way down to when you leave. It's always until next time. There's never a good-bye at Disney."
LENGTH: Long : 178 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Family snapshots: 1. Jeremy was a toddler on his firstby CNBvisit in 1971. 2. In 1973, he posed in his stroller. 2. Jeremy (with
Mickey Mouse doll) and Goofy in 1974. 3. Another visit around 1974,
Jeremy (left) poses with Minnie Mouse and a friend. 4. Jeremy Smith
this year at Disney World's 25th anniversary. ALAN KIM/Staff. 5.
Smith found these wood Pinocchio figures at a yard sale. 6. When it
comes to Disney products, Jeremy Smith is something of a pack rat.
7. Smith shows off part of his vast collection of Disney figurines
and souvenirs. 8. Smith's Disney hoard includes both new and old
artifacts, such as a Mickey Mouse magazine from 1939 and an
oversized Woody (in cowboy outfit) from the Disney movie ``Toy
Story.'' color.