Part of my longstanding love for Disney has always been the little, constant things: the way a resort smells, the music that plays on Main Street, and the countless other tiny details that have stayed the same since I first visited WDW in 1983.  On my quick weekend trip to WDW earlier this month, I was reminded again of one of those little things from my childhood, one of those small objects that hearkens back to an earlier and easier time I remember so fondly: the simple Mickey head balloon.

Our long weekend WDW visit happened to coincide with Super Bowl Sunday, and also with what I’ll call MVP Monday – the day the “I’m going to Disney World!”-yelling Super Bowl MVP visits WDW to appear in a special parade on the day following the Super Bowl.  After our New England Patriots got knocked out of the playoffs, CP and I didn’t really care about seeing the MVP in person.  It turns out that we actually did see Joe Flacco and his family wandering around the Magic Kingdom that day, but that celebrity sighting paled in comparison to something else I saw:

Decked out in patriotic colors for the Super Bowl MVP.

Hello, old friend.

There they were, in all their glory, reminding me so powerfully of my childhood trips to WDW. Unlike today’s Mickey balloons that are sold as a balloon-within-a-balloon, the MVP parade featured the classic Mickey head balloon. I have to admit, I nearly teared up when I saw them.

Today’s Mickey balloons – they’re just not the same.

The Imagineering Disney blog has a great post that vividly captures the aesthetic beauty of these original, simple balloons.  In addition, I found a couple photos from my own early trips to Disney, these from 1983:

That’s me with my mother, aunt, and grandmother, enjoying a character breakfast at the Polynesian – mostly likely at Minnie’s Menehune breakfast.  I remember taking one of those balloons with me after the breakfast and guarding it with my life.  I didn’t want to be one of those kids whose balloons flew away, either up into the sky or into the rafters of the Contemporary’s Grand Canyon Concourse.  These balloons were my Disney love wrapped up in a single, colorful object.

After all, it’s the little things.