Above and Beyond. That’s where you’ve gone. And thinking about all the amazing things you all are finding and figuring out, I have that feeling I get while watching a parade. With fireworks. And confetti. And silly string, the kind that doesn’t get stuck in your hair.

It’s probably because I went so long thinking I had to do everything on my own. Yes, Grandpa believed in the power of optimistic people teaming up and joining forces. But Mom? Well, let’s just say she’s been looking out for me. She’s tough, independent, and she raised me to be the same. But I personally love the idea of merging both those worlds. Grandpa AND Mom’s.

This isn’t about me, though. This is about making sense of the last week or so, giving credit where credit is due.

First, I came across a nuclear fusion brochure in Grandpa’s apartment, and Stephen figured out that the message on it was written in shorthand. Chad’s grandmother and Reid’s mother translated the message, discovering a possible schedule for meetings with Wernher (Von Braun?), (Ray?) Bradbury, and Howard (Hughes?).

Who knew Grandpa knew shorthand!

Then we discussed Wallace from disneycartography.com, who posted his own map of the refreshed Tomorrowland in 1959. There appears to be three locations on Wallace’s map that seemed to be designated as points of particular interest – Submarine Voyage, Tomorrowland Monorail Station, and Tomorrowland Autopia.  Kalani found a secret code at the Midget Autopia statue. And Hastin found two more codes at Submarine Voyage and Tomorrowland Monorail Station.  Amber then pointed out those codes are U.S. patent numbers.  But what do they mean?

Then – remember those World’s Fair records I mailed out last week?

I mailed the records out to a bunch of you to thank you for all your help and hard work. After receiving one of the records, Elizabeth discovered that they were multi-grooved, with an extra track containing alternative narration for certain World’s Fair attractions – the Carousel of Progress and the Primeval World diorama.*  The audio for Side A can be found here and Side B can be found here.

James figured out that the alternative audio narration on the record was intended for special VIP guests. I believe each alternative narration was meant to be listened to at specific points in their corresponding attractions! The extra track audio hints at advancements in technology that didn’t come about until well after 1964.

A while back, we found out from Lott’s email footer that we can access protected pages on his website by adding a slash after the Lott Family Construction URL, followed by the codename of the project requested. After I posted a note about Grandpa that hinted at his involvement in something referred to as “eticket59”, Stephen entered “/eticket59” at the end of the Lott Family Construction URL and unlocked access to blueprints for the original Tomorrowland.

From the ‘client area’ on the Lott Family Construction website.

Within the original Tomorrowland blueprints, Jody and Stephen discovered secret keys to those patents, and the secret meanings of the patent diagrams were revealed. Shining light on top-secret tech. Finally illuminating what “Signal Flag,” Auto Apparatus,” and “Mark 0” were code names for!

Either way, all of the work you did and discoveries you found continually inspire me to continue on. To forge ahead. Undaunted. Overall, awesome progress this week. Looking forward to tomorrow. Always.

*Update:  Oops!  In my sleepy haze last night I posted the wrong name.  Silly me.  After listening to it, I think Stephen is right and the track is referencing Primeval World.

Now I’m*really* late to lab – gotta run!

Remember those ’64 World’s Fair records I sent out last week? Well, Elizabeth (@wilkeliza) happened to be playing one of them and found some hidden tracks. Yeah. What. In. The. World? Turns out the record is double grooved. Who even knew that was a thing? (Thanks for the tip Jacob.)

You think that’s nuts, you should listen to what’s on the hidden tracks:

Side A

Side B

Natasha has one theory:

It sounds like the track is meant to be listen to while riding an attraction, in this case perhaps carousel of progress?

Just last night, Vivian and I listened to Elizabeth’s recordings of sides 1 and 2. Then Vivian got Grandpa’s record player working again. And we’ve been having this unbelievable time, listening and thinking about all of you out there listening too!

These past weeks, looking more deeply into Grandpa’s work, no matter how weird the discoveries may be, my smile just gets bigger and bigger. I swear it’s taking over my face! His personality shines through in his writing so clearly I can practically hear his voice. I can also see why someone like Mr. Disney was interested in him. This is who he was: Passionate. Idealistic. Brimming with hope. Both at home and, now it seems, at work for Walt. And that’s the dream, right? Doing that thing that brings out the best in you? Doing what you love? Even when it may seem impossible?

Now that I’m older, I see how it really was a courageous thing to do. Still is. Always will be. In the same way that Mom inspires me to work hard and stay strong, Grandpa, more than ever, inspires me to follow my heart. Despite the roadblocks. Despite the flat tires. Despite the uncertainty of what’s around the bend. That inspiration is a gift from him that continues to thrive.

Anyway, we know what IASW stands for, but why would he include it in his science fiction? And the “technological advancements” he mentions here sound a lot like stuff we use today. Hmm. Reminds me of Jules Verne. Predicting things like the solar sail and electric submarines.

Honestly, this script is a bit out there. Okay, more than a bit. And I love it! Grandpa’s imagination is still taking me places. And now it’s transporting us. All of us! Together. And I say the farther the better.

Found this in the bottom of the crate that had all of those things from the World’s Fair.

And after discussing Grandpa with Mom the other day (or ambushing her with the video camera – whatever you want to call it), I’ve been thinking about how to continue sharing our discoveries with her. To have her maybe join this journey we’ve embarked on. But some of Grandpa’s stuff might be a bit too out there for her to jump into right away. Especially when she’s seeing all of this with fresh eyes. So I thought the World’s Fair swag might be a nice bridge to Grandpa’s mysterious past.

Really, I’ve just been wanting to talk about Grandpa with her. That’s all. I want him to be a part of our lives again and, deep down, I believe Mom does too. We miss him. I know we do. So, this is what I showed her.

Wernher/11:30

Bradbury/1:00

Howard/3:30 – ? May need to reschedule

Walt Disney, Wernher Von Braun, and my grandfather?  Like you all, I’m assuming the Bradbury listed is Ray. Sure, that’s a group that makes sense. What am I supposed to make of this?

Still looks like scribbles to me – shorthand is super awesome. Grandpa was so multitalented.

Then I noticed this scribbeldygook on the cover. It looks like it might be Grandpa’s handwriting, but it also looks like it was written by a spider who’s had one too many. An alien language, maybe? He was a sci-fi guy, after all…

Found this tucked inside the glossy “Your Tour of Progressland” brochure.

]]> http://storyorbit.fans/yet-even-more-of-64/feed 97 http://storyorbit.fans/you-are-awesomesauce http://storyorbit.fans/you-are-awesomesauce#comments Sat, 13 Jul 2013 03:01:31 +0000 Amelia http://storyorbit.fans/?p=213 Continue reading →]]> When I started this, I never expected this kind of response. Everyone has been amazing helping to unravel grandpa’s story and being such supportive friends. I’m lucky to have you guys. There have been lots of things flying back and forth on the blog and with Twitter, so, while I want to respond to everyone, it’s probably best if I just point everyone here. Here’s what we know:

Grandpa sold his work to Disney and worked with them on some kind of Special Projects Team. That team was up to something at the ’64 World’s Fair. More than just building mechanical presidents and magical skyways, anyway. Along with building the attractions, they were, apparently, building lots of other stuff we (the general public) were never meant to see. Christina and Kalani figured out the secret conference code and heard a fifty-year-old recording that gave us more questions than answers. If you call (213) 438-9463 and enter the month and day for the date you call (like today would be 0712), you can hear it yourself. Buuut… What was the World’s Fair Special Projects Team really up to? How did Grandpa fit into all of this? What’s the deal with the secret patents that they didn’t want released?

Thanks to James (@baseballmickey) and Nick, who did a little email detective work prodding Mr. Lott, we know that Michael Lott at Lott Family Construction worked on some super-secret stuff that was shown to VIPs during the fair. Here’s the memo to prove it:

Thanks to James and Nick’s detective work, we have this memo from Mr. Lott.

Kimberly discovered that if you adjust the levels and contrast on the memo, you can make out some of the redacted materials.

Thanks to Kimberly, Michael, and James (on Twitter) we think the redactions are (in order): “The City, Florida Project, The City, _________ Signal Flag, Auto Apparatus, and Mark 0 Project.

Amber and Kalani were one of the groups that went to the Tam O’Shanter and posted photos of the markings on the table where Walt Disney and his Imagineers used to eat. They found dinosaurs, more codes, and noticed this T/U symbol that’s cropped up on both the table and on a poster celebrating Imagineers at the Tam, by someone named Wallace. Kira also went to the Tam and discovered the soufflé was chocolaty molten deliciousness (so craving some right now).

Poster found at the Tam O’Shanter – the small text at the bottom says it was made by a fellow named ‘Wallace’ of disneycartography.com

While poking around on Wallace’s site, disneycartography.com, Stephen noticed some strange details on some of the posters. Who is this Wallace who made the poster at the Tam? What’s his connection to all this? We don’t know.

Yet.

I’ll say it again. You are awesome.

While I was up there, trying to neatly stack all the old magazines, books, and newspapers, I began thinking about Grandpa. And I had to stop. I just sat down on the rug by his desk. Staring up at his typewriter. Listening to the rain on the rooftop.  Wishing Grandpa was here. Wishing I had tried harder to learn more about him while he was here. Even if he did have a knack for dodging certain questions, I should have tried harder. That’s what I was thinking when I felt a warm breeze that seemed to be coming from the filing cabinets, the ones where I’ve been finding most of the stuff I’ve posted here.

As I got closer, I felt the warm air coming from the space between the filing cabinets. No, my mom did not pass her height down to me, but she did pass down her strength. So I inched one of the filing cabinets further away from the back wall and right near the vent I found this:

And not just a few, a STACK of them. So many of you have taken precious time out of your night and day to help me, not just taking it upon yourselves to figure out what Grandpa was up to, but more importantly by being an inspirational and encouraging voice to me and each other. And the moment I found those records, I knew I had to somehow show my thanks. So I’m sending them all out. (Keeping one for myself. I just need to find a record player that works. Grandpa’s is pretty busted up.)

If you’d like one, make sure to fill out your mailing address in your account profile by tomorrow at noon (EST).  I’ll pick some folks at random to send these out to.  I look forward to sending my thanks. Thank you all for being such good friends!

Called the number for Lott Family Construction (Michael’s accent is spec-tac-u-lar) then poked around his company’s website. If he did work on Progressland like he says, it looks like he was at the Fair there same time as Grandpa. Trying to set up an interview to talk to him — especially if he knew Grandpa back in the day! If I can get some audio, maybe I’ll use it as voice over for the plethora of World’s Fair photos.

Check it.

The number still works!

What a day!  Things were super-slow at the video store tonight.  I lined the aisles with grandpa’s old photos of men in thin ties and women in spectacular cat-eye glasses. I’m trying to put together a rough timeline of grandpa’s life. Vivian’s convinced I’m a crazy person. I honestly have no evidence to the contrary.

Despite the long day, you all inspired me to stay up tonight and continue to dig through lots of the choice World’s Fair stuff for the doc.  Found some great things here! Thinking of using them in a photo-montage about the World’s Fair if I can ever put together why Grandpa was really there. It was definitely more than just to get a corndog and to watch a robot Lincoln. Some photos are bigfoot-quality and some of them I don’t know what they are. They seem to be taken by Grandpa and the dates line up. The more I look at the pieces the less I seem to understand.

A quick selection of photos from grandpa’s files.

More soon! So much more.  For now – time for sleep!

Just to get these into some kind of chronological order is a Herculean effort. Found a massive cache of stuff from the World’s Fair. Will post them over the next couple days, but let’s start with this: a Grandpa/Disney/64 Fair connection?

A special invitation!

Does anyone out there know anything about the Fair? Particularly about Disney? There’s so much about it online and I don’t even know where to start.