The Contemporary Resort Hotel

Around 1974 my husband Ken, our four small children and I went to Disney World in Orlando and stayed at the splendorous Contemporary Resort Hotel.  It was, at that time, a futuristic icon.  The atrium was larger than a football field.  The main hall has one of the world's largest mosaics, 90 feet tall, with 18,000 hand-painted tiles representing an artistic view of the Grand Canyon.

The year before we were there President Nixon chose the Contemporary to deliver his "I am not a crook" speech.

But the coolest thing about this space-age hotel is that the Disney monorail goes right through the lobby.  And the most exciting thing to happen to us was, as we boarded the monorail, our little daughter, Sarah's flip flop fell off her foot and floated several stories down.

18,000 hand made Mosaic
tiles in the lobby

We were all new to the magic of Disney and so for years we told the story of how Sarah lost her flip flop on the monorail.  It became legendary.

 I still think of the Contemporary as....well...contemporary.  But it's not.

The hotel is being celebrated this month, along with other architectural landmarks,  as the futuristic icon that Walt Disney World unveiled in 1971.  So, while I may think of the Contemporary as still contemporary, it's no longer new.  It's 45 years old.

And my four little kids have grown up to have big lives of their own.  Including Sarah who was then and is still, an undeterred force of nature.  I remember several years ago seeing her, as an assistant district attorney, give instructions over the phone to have a guy arrested while she was making dinner for her own four kids.

But I still remember too - like it was yesterday - our whole family watching her flip flop float down several stories from the monorail in the Contemporary atrium.


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