diff --git a/src/as/com/threerings/flash/DisplayUtil.as b/src/as/com/threerings/flash/DisplayUtil.as
index 3f06d1c7..0aafbe8c 100644
--- a/src/as/com/threerings/flash/DisplayUtil.as
+++ b/src/as/com/threerings/flash/DisplayUtil.as
@@ -43,30 +43,22 @@ public class DisplayUtil
         container :DisplayObjectContainer, comp :Function = null) :void
     {
         var numChildren :int = container.numChildren;
-
-        // since it's likely this function will be called frequently on the same
-        // DisplayObjectContainer, keep the Array around so that we're not
-        // re-allocating memory more often than we need to
-        if (_sortDisplayChildrenArray.length != numChildren) {
-            _sortDisplayChildrenArray = new Array(numChildren);
-        }
-
+        // put all children in an array
+        var children :Array = new Array(numChildren);
         var ii :int;
         for (ii = 0; ii < numChildren; ii++) {
-            _sortDisplayChildrenArray[ii] = container.getChildAt(ii);
+            children[ii] = container.getChildAt(ii);
         }
 
         // stable sort the array
-        ArrayUtil.stableSort(_sortDisplayChildrenArray, comp);
+        ArrayUtil.stableSort(children, comp);
 
         // set their new indexes
         for (ii = 0; ii < numChildren; ii++) {
-            container.setChildIndex(DisplayObject(_sortDisplayChildrenArray[ii]), ii);
+            container.setChildIndex(DisplayObject(children[ii]), ii);
         }
     }
 
-    private static var _sortDisplayChildrenArray :Array = [];
-
     /**
      * Call the specified function for the display object and all descendants.
      *