The Mug Life Chose Me #8: Orange Bird

Back when I was a kid, Florida was so well known for its oranges that people would literally bring them home as souvenirs for family. I can’t imagine handing a tween a bag of oranges these days, but back when we only had three TV channels, Florida seemed as exotic as a tropical island to me. In 1971, Disney debuted Orange Bird for the Florida Citrus Commission, which sponsored both the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Sunshine Tree Terrace at Walt Disney World. Orange Bird was featured on the signage there, and was also a delightfully creepy walkaround character. My first trip to Walt Disney World in 1979 coincided with Orange Bird’s first Disney Parks Era, and that adorable orange avian imprinted on me HARD. Orange Bird disappeared throughout the 80s and 90s, but thanks to nostalgia, it came back in the 2000s and has settled into a solid tertiary-character in the park. These days he’s one of the mascots of EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival. I have quite a few pieces of Orange Bird…