My ears NEVER CAME OUT OF STORAGE

I had a pair of Mouseketeer Ears. They were lovely. Very heavy ears, felt beanie. No name on it. Just the Mickey Mouse Club logo. They were bought at Disneyland not long after the park opened. Unfortunately when we moved to Hawaii they went into storage somewhere in Maryland and I never saw them again. The Navy changed storage companies while we were in the Islands and when we returned a lot of our stuff was missing. Many of my dolls, toys, and books were to never be seen again. I have always missed those ears and really do wonder why my folks didn't let me take them along. I could have simply worn them. I know we were quite limited on what all we could have shipped to Hawaii, but seriously...Mouseketeer Ears? Like I said, I could have worn them the whole way on the drive across country, on the Matsonia out of San Francisco, and then happily along the streets of Waikiki.

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This advertisement is from the back cover of the August 1958, Volume III, No. 5 issue of Walt Disney's Magazine. The magazine was first published in late 1955 as Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club Magazine and was of course meant to publicize the show. To see all of the covers of each issue and see some of the internal pages click on this link to a blog called The Original Mickey Mouse Club Show. But back to the hats.

Who wouldn't want the Zorro hat with mask? What a gem. Zorro Billy indeed. I loved Zorro and unfortunately was caught telling a whopper about Zorro as a kid. I was visiting my grandparent's in Pennsylvania. My family had recently moved from Chula Vista, California to near Washington D.C. and I used to spend several weeks each summer at my grandparents home. I still recall telling the little girl down the street that while living in Chula Vista I had seen Zorro's grave. I said this to impress her. I was worldly, she wasn't. I was about 5 so you figure out exactly how worldly I really was. Indeed she was impressed as I elaborated on exactly what the grave looked like. She was so impressed that she told her dad I'd been to Zorro's grave. Ummmmm...her dad...not so impressed. Me? I imagine the blood drained from my face or the opposite and I turned bright red. Whatever I looked like I do know I felt hollow looking out through my eyes at that man's stare. He didn't say anything. He didn't contradict me. He just stared at me. One of those moments that still is buried deep inside that makes me squirm. My Zorro lie. And I allow this ephemera to drag it all back up to the surface. 

As to the Donald hat. Ummmmmm...I remember even at a young age feeling sorry for the kids running around Disneyland wearing those things. They were just somehow so undignified.