Kimmi Stories -- Remembering Kimmi

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Date Posted: 01:06:55 01/13/06 Fri
Author: Troy C. Porter
Subject: Kimmi Stories

"Kimmi Stories". That's what my family would call them every year around the Thanksgiving table. After I started working at Disneyland I was the hit at family events because I would always have at least a couple new "Kimmi Stories" to tell each year. It's upsetting to realize there won't be any new Kimmi Stories, but some of the stories and memories here from names I recognize and names I don't has certainly helped.

I was so lucky to become friends with Kim, and I'm so thankful I ended up at Pirates working with her for the years that I did. (Or when Pirates was down for rehab we'd be at the "Big House" or, God help us all, at Splash. But Pirates and Kim are forever linked in my mind.) After I got over being terrified of Kim when I was first trained at Pirates, I think I warmed to her so quickly because she said and did all of the things I was too afraid to do. I was a real square when I was a new CM (Don't say a word Heidi Steelmon!), I was too chickenshit to ever dare break any of the rules or "Guidelines", and I simply lived vicariously through Kim's wonderful irreverance and her ballsy attitude. Kim was a Disneyland original, a wonderful human being, and I already miss her dearly.

There are so many happy memories attached to Kim, and so many hilarious stories. One of my favorites happened of course at Pirates, with Kim at Unload and me sitting in Tower in the late 1990's. A little girl got out of the front row of the front boat just as her shoe slipped off and fell into the flume, and with the flow of the water in the station it immediately headed out into the Bayou. The little girl broke down in tears, and Kim grabbed the flashlight out of the dock box and shined her light onto this little pink shoe floating away from the dock. Kim looked up at me in the Tower and yelled "Do something!", I looked at her wide eyed and shrugged my shoulders. What was I supposed to do?

Kim picked up the ride phone and said "Get down here and do something to get that damn shoe!". I said to Kim "What can I do? There's no one up here, I can't leave Tower. I'll yell down to the break room and see if Elaine can come bump me out." And Kim just said "Fine, just do something." We all know how Kim felt about most of our adult guests, but she clearly liked this little girl and was keeping her flashlight aimed right at the shoe as it floated towards the Blue Bayou patio while her parents just stood watching. I yelled down to the break room, but for the first time in 20 years Elaine was not down there reading the Times and had disapeared somewhere. Crap, I was screwed.

I called Kim back and told her Elaine wasn't in the break room and what could I do? The Cast Member at Load was a new CT and a complete idiot, and Kim didn't trust her, and the shoe was floating farther away. And with that Kim pressed in her station stop and said to me over the ride phone "Talk to the people and do one of your spiels. If YOU can't do anything I'll take care of it." Before I could argue, Kim grabbed the expandable pool net out of the dock box and took off out the exit, all the while shining her flashlight on that shoe still floating towards the Blue Bayou. I started spieling to the backed up boats in the horseshoe and on the lift while Kim hopped the fence at the exit and began making her way through the bushes batting away fiber optic fireflies while she went.

The little girl, the parents, and me all watched Kim as she made her way along the edge of the Blue Bayou patio holding on to the patio railing with one hand and her flashlight and net in the other. Amazingly most of the Blue Bayou diners didn't even seem to notice Kim as she walked along the waters edge, and before we knew it she was leaning out from the handrailing and scooping the shoe out of the water. Kim started the journey back along the patio, and suddenly she stopped near a waterside table where an attentive couple had noticed Kim rescue the shoe and were laughing. Kim stopped and gave them her trademark big grin and she actually chatted with them for a few moments hanging on to the railing before she started back again to the edge of the patio, through the bushes, and back over the fence and to the Unload dock.

With a few quick motions Kim cleared her Station Stop, dispatched the boats, grabbed a pro-towel out of the dock box, and presented the pink shoe on a pro-towel to the little girl. As you can imagine the girl and her parents were thrilled with Kim, Kim looked amused at the whole thing, and I just sat there in the Tower with my mouth wide open watching it all. After another dispatch and as the little girl and her parents were leaving, I picked up the ride phone and buzzed Kim. I said "Kim, that was fantastic!" and she responded back "Well, you wouldn't goddamn do anything so I had to." I laughed and then she said "Do something useful and call the Blue Bayou, that nice couple by the water needs more coffee!" She hung up the ride phone, looked up at me in the Tower, and threw back her head with one of those big laughs of hers.

Thank you for the laughs, the friendship, and the memories Kim. You won't ever be forgotten.

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Replies:

A Kimmi Memory -- Rodel Rabara, 16:39:18 01/20/06 Fri