Walt Disney was born in 1901, but his company, founded with his brother Roy, was 100 years old in 2023. Disney at 100 is being celebrated by a travelling exhibit. In the third week of September, we drove to Kansas City to view an impressive collection of photographs, objects, drawings, plans for Disneyland, and other elements that are connected to bringing us The Mouse and all of the other characters and technological advances that Disney is known for.

The setting for the exhibition was Union Station. Perhaps you are wondering why Kansas City. Although Walt and Roy Disney were born in Chicago, their family moved to Marceline, Missouri when Roy was 5 and then Kansas City when he was 9. After a stint with the Red Cross in Europe at the end of WWI and some additional travel, he moved to California in 1923. Walt and Roy Disney soon founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Their story of success had started. For the next four decades plus, Walt and Roy Disney brought joy first to America and then the world.

My grandson is a big fan of Disney characters. His favorite is Mickey Mouse followed closely by Donald Duck. While looking for cartoons on the Disney Channel, he stumbled across a selection of shorts made from the mid-1930s to the early 1940s. The characters look a bit different than they do today. Mickey has a high-pitched voice, one that seems to grate on adults. My grandson loves them all, dancing skeletons, a pig on a roof laying bricks, and Mickey and Minnie singing. We watch them together. I came across some of the same images at the exhibit.

Of course, no trip to KC is complete without some good BBQ and baseball if the Royals are in town and it’s baseball season. We caught the Royals during their last homestand of 2024. The day was dreary, although I contend that there are no bad days when baseball is involved. The Royals had been getting good pitching and no hitting in the last few weeks of the season and Sunday afternoon during our time at the park it wasn’t different. They lost to the Giants 3-0, sad bats all around.

 They were able to rally during their final road trip and secured a wild card slot in the playoffs. So far, they have defeated Baltimore and next play the Yankees. Go Royals.

 I am a fan of Dick Howser. Howser played and coached at Florida State University, leaving the university to manage the New York Yankees in 1978 and 1980 and the Royals starting in 1981. He guided the Royals to their first World Series title in 1985. His career was cut short by brain cancer and he died in 1987 at age 51. The Dick Howser Trophy, the Heisman Trophy of college baseball, is given to the top college baseball player each year. The baseball stadium at Florida State is named Dick Howser Stadium.