Come to The Tiki Room. Fly to The Tiki Room. This has been a recording.

I was reading some posts on Facebook today and something triggered my memories of working at Walt Disney World from 1979 - 1992. For about two years from the summer of 1980 to the summer of 1982 I had the great pleasure of working in the shops of Adventureland. I loved working in Adventureland. For most of my time there I worked in two specific shop. One shop, called "The Magic Carpet", sold items from the far east and the other, named "Oriental Imports" featured merchandise from...well...the orient. Still today many things bring back memories of those shops. The smell of Brasso (we used to have to shine the brass items with Brasso), the feel and smell of soft leather, the site of inlaid wooden boxes with hidden compartments, the smell of incense from India or the orient, the sound of oriental music...all take me back to those wonderful days.

Another great memory is "The Barker Bird" that once perched outside of The Enchanted Tiki Room. The shops that I worked at were right across the courtyard from that wonderful attraction and the equally wonderful food stand - The Sunshine Tree Terrace. We could hear "The Barker Bird" all day long. I think at one point I had his entire spiel memorized. That and the Adventureland Drum music were what we heard day in and day out. It brings back pleasant memories now, but back then I'm sure we considered them a curse.

Now things have changed a lot in Adventureland. "The Barker Bird" is gone. The shops have been rethemed, remodeled and renamed. The courtyard is gone and in it's place is The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Many things are different, but I still have the memories.

Here are a couple of videos that I found on YouTube that feature both "The Barker Bird" and the Adventureland Drum music. Enjoy!