As I noted in
last Saturday’s column, this week has been my birthday week – the big 6-0! I
didn’t want to tell you ahead of time that my family decided to surprise me
with a visit to the most frequented vacation resort in the world, Walt Disney
World. While I know Ashland is someplace special, I wanted to be cautious and
not announce to the world that our house was going to be empty for nearly a
week. However, arriving home late Thursday night, I realized that anyone trying
to rob us would have been like Marv and Harry from “Home Alone,” slipping and
sliding on the ice in our driveway.
Yes, my
husband, three sons, daughter-in-law and the lovely Madelyn Simone spent six
days with me in the land of Mickey. Technically, we were heading south to
celebrate my birthday, but since Madelyn turns five this month, she told
everyone she met that we were going to Disney for her birthday. Hot diggety
dog!
WDW is an
amazing destination and a well-oiled operation. In 2013, 18.6 million people
visited the Magic Kingdom, and it felt like there were a million of those people
there on Thursday. Yet here’s the irony. As we were leaving our hotel for the
airport, Madelyn made her 200th best friend of the trip. One of the
adults traveling with her new friend was from Ashland, Ohio. She looked at me
and said, “Are you Mrs. Shade? Is this the lovely Madelyn Simone?” I won’t
mention her name in case her driveway isn’t an ice skating rink like ours, but
it sure is a small world.
Speaking of
“It’s a Small World,” I’m glad that ride didn’t break down halfway through its
voyage around the globe. I’d rather be stuck on the incline of Space Mountain,
the roller coaster that operates in the dark, than to hear that song ten more
times. The depictions of various cultures are fine, but the song gets on my
nerves.
As for
culture, the wonderful world of Disney has ingeniously enmeshed itself in our
lives. We can sing all the songs, we identify with our favorite characters, and
we’re anxious to stand in line to get a chipmunk, duck or mouse to sign an
autograph book. The Disney brand has come a long way since Walt used to talk to
us on Sunday nights at the beginning of “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of
Color.” He died before Disney World was completed, and I wonder what he’d think
of his empire today. Maybe this: “I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one
thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” How I wish I’d bought a few shares
of Disney stock back in the day.
While at a
Meet-the-Princesses Luncheon, we talked about Disney employment with our waiter
and asked how the women get selected to be the princesses. His answer was
classic even though probably scripted: “They’re either born into a royal family
or they marry a prince.” While I can enjoy Madelyn’s princess costume and
adorable curtsy, I want her to know that girls can dream of much more than life
with a fairy tale prince. I want to remind her of Walt’s words: “The more you
like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique,” and
“When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.”
As in any
large, crowded venue, we had some difficulty keeping track of each other, even
with cell phones. But we discovered the secret: if we shouted out O-H, the rest
of us would answer, I-0, along with fifty other people in the vicinity. Proud
to be Buckeyes!
Fortunately, our ability to navigate the huge property improved as the week progressed, and we survived tired feet, bumpy and grumpy moments, and even two lost cell phones. When we look back at the Disney pictures from 2015, most of all we'll remember a beaming little birthday girl nestled in the arms of Pooh and Piglet, Daisy and Donald, and Belle and Ariel, framed by Walt's own words: 'Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever."
No comments:
Post a Comment