Tales From The College Program: The Mysterious Larry Lewis

When I was in the Walt Disney World College Program I would typically leave work around 1:30 AM, so it was pretty common for me to come home to find all of my roommates sleeping (or at Not So Scary without me).  What was uncommon was to find one sleeping on the floor.

The lump on the floor was my roommate, Ray, he woke up when I opened the door and said his friend Larry was sleeping on the couch.  I said "alright" and went to bed.  The Vista Way rules didn't allow over night visitors and Ray hadn't mentioned anyone coming to visit, but it was 2 AM and I really didn't care.  Odds are I had probably just ran across I-4 after missing the bus, so sleep was all I cared about.

The next morning I met Ray's guest, his name was Larry Lewis.  He was an Orlando native, not a CP.  Ray had found him wandering around the Vista Way parking lot in some sort of inebriated state and let him sleep on our couch.  He had jumped the fence of the neighboring apartment complex looking for a party.  I guess Ray slept on the floor to make sure he didn't steal all our valuables (i.e. Miracle Blades) in the night.  We found out later that sometime during the night Larry woke up looking for the bathroom and peed on Ray, so it might surprise you to know that Larry ended up living on our couch for about a month.

During our time with Larry here is what we knew about him, he was 21 (the 21 tattoo on his leg let us know that), he worked as a salesman at an Orlando car dealership, and that's pretty much it.  He was a normal looking guy, kind of "fratty" with a stoners mentality.  He lived out of a back pack that contained 2 shirts, and if I remember correctly some cologne.  He'd sleep on the couch at night and disappear in the afternoon.  Whenever he heard someone at the apartment door he would run and hide in Ray's room, even though we told him it wasn't necessary.

After a few days Larry wanted to thank us for the hospitality so he "bought" us some DVD's from the World of Disney store.  The first one he brought home was one of his favorites, The Apple Dumpling Gang."  Other titles included, Finding Nemo and the live action George of the Jungle.  I have no clue how he decided which movies he was going to steal for us (let's face it Larry Lewis was not buying DVD's) but I always found his selections hilarious.

His greatest gift though was an awful mini poster from the movie Stuck on You.  I came home one day to see it hanging in the living room, Larry was pretty excited "I saw you guys had all these other movie posters, so I got you this one."  It was so bad that we had no choice but to leave it up.

Then as mysteriously as he had appeared, Larry Lewis vanished.  He didn't sleep over every night, so at first it was no big deal, his back pack and clothes were still in our living room floor, so we figured he'd come back for then, but he never did.

A few weeks later my schedule was altered so that I was working an outdoor food tent for the Festival of the Masters at Downtown Disney.  During a lull in business I noticed a familiar figure pass by my tent, it was Larry Lewis, I called out to him.  It was no surprise to find him wandering around Downtown Disney, I assumed this is where he went everyday when we went to work.  I asked him what was up.  He told me he was going down to the AMC to watch "In The Cut" because he heard "Meg Ryan got naked in it."  I wished him good luck and he went on his way.  That was the last time any of us every saw him.

We eventually went through his back pack to see if its contents would answer any of our many questions about him, but all we found were the shirts, cologne, and his social security card (which I still have).  I called the dealership he told us he worked for and asked them to speak with Larry Lewis, they told me no one by that name was employed there.

Who was Larry Lewis?  What became of him?  Did he find another apartment to crash in?  Is he still roaming the parking lot of Vista Way looking for a place to party?  And most importantly, why did Ray let him live with us for a month after he peed on him?  The world may never know.....