Walt’s Wonderful World
I want to talk about someone we all know – a guy by the name of Disney. When I was a kid growing up in the San Joaquin Valley – and, yes, that was a long, long time ago – I loved Walt Disney. He was always on TV, always in black-and-white – and he always looked avuncular (though I did not have a clue, back then, what that meant). He looked like that Uncle You Wish You Had But Never Really Did. In fact – though I cannot remember this for sure – I might even have wished that Walt Disney was my dad. Yes, like virtually every other kid in America, I loved Mr. Disney, and on that terrible day when the Fresno Bee reported his death on the front page, I cried. I really did.
I have, of course, never forgotten Mr. Disney, and you likely haven’t, either. His name and face really haven’t gone away, all these decades later. Neither, of course, has his iconic signature – you see it on movie screens in the opening credits of every Disney Corporation-made motion picture. His legacy lives on in oh-so-many elements of our pop culture – not the least of which is the amusement-park business. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say Mr. Disney created that modern business.
When our kids were young, Sharon and I often took them to Disneyland in Anaheim. We spent many a day, and tons of money, there – and never regretted any of it. The kids were always into the roller-coaster rides – all of them. I was into something a bit more sedate. Now, don’t laugh when I tell you that the fastest rides I could stomach were the ones that roared us through Small World or the Haunted Mansion. I could also do the Monorail. (Why do I hear laughing in the background??)
Well, the children are grown and out of the house, and Sharon and I don’t like driving on Southern California’s nutty freeways any more. But we still like “Disney magic,” and that has led us to fly to Disney World in Florida – most recently a few months ago. Yes, it was fun and interesting and exciting and worth the time and money. But it was more than that – it was eye-opening, and it made me feel sorry. Sorry for the rest of us who don’t live in Walt Disney’s World.
You see, Mr. Disney has created a world that’s oh-so-much better than the one we live in. In Mr. Disney’s World, everything works as it is supposed to. When the schedule indicates that the bus that will take you from your resort hotel to any of Mr. Disney’s “kingdoms” will arrive at 9:19 a.m. – it does arrive at 9:19. When you get into line for one of the rides at the Magic Kingdom (the East Coast equivalent of Mr. Disney’s West Coast Disneyland) – a sign tells you how long the wait from your particular location is. And you will discover that the sign was exactly right.
What Mr. Disney thought up at both Disney World and Disneyland – and what those who followed him have created – is nothing less than a miracle. A miracle where everyone seems to be happy, where nothing seems to go wrong – and where anyone who buys a pass into any of the “worlds” actually gets value-added for the money. The Magic Kingdom is for kids of all ages, and it’s the most crowded, but if you get a Fast Pass, you can quickly get into the Haunted Mansion or the Pirates of the Caribbean or It’s a Small World. That kingdom also features parades and sing-alongs and fireworks and Mr. Disney’s vision of what Main Street America should look like – and likely did, when he was growing up. When you’re there, you wish YOUR street or town looked like that.
Disney World was Walt’s dream that he never lived to see come to life. He died – way, way too young – shortly after he’d announced plans to build Disney World. He never saw the Magic Kingdom open in 1971, or EPCOT in ’82, or the Hollywood Studios Park in ’89, or Animal Kingdom in ’98. As we walked through, and reveled in, each of these delightful venues, I got this strange sense of sadness that he had not been able to see it all unfold. Truly, he would have been proud of what his successors created – all in his name. Every inch of those parks oozes Disney creativity and charm and whimsy.
We left Disney World the way most visitors do – reluctantly, but happy we’d come and completely satisfied with the experience. But we also came away with the nagging feeling that we didn’t want to return to the Real World – you know, the one outside Mr. Disney’s World. In Mr. Disney’s World, people were nice, there were no random acts of violence, and you felt safe and secure. Here in the Real World – well, you know what I mean.