Disneyland

I have a rather unique realationship with Disneyland. I lived in Central California in a town called Santa Maria. I was out on my own for my first time and decided our first college summer to take my girlfriend to Disneyland.

We went for three days and I was blown away. It was a total spiritual experience for me. This was my playful world built just for me. When we got back to Santa Maria from the trip, I immediately wrote to Disneyland and asked how to go about getting a job at the park.

I got a response with all the sgtandards and requirements to be a Disneyland employee. One of the requirements in 1969 was the employee live within one hour travel time from the park. I debated for a long time. I had a scholarship to my college but I was 200 miles away. For a couple weeks, I agonized about transferring to a local Los Angeles college and going to work at my dream. But on this one I decided I would just continue to visit the park.

Thus it continued. I went as often as I could. At one point in the 1990's, I had been to the park with a girlfriend a number of times. Another woman friend asked me to accompany her. A couple I knew (husband and wife) decided to ask me to take the wife. This was because he did not even understand Disneyland and his wife was a Disneyland fanatic. He would sponsor her trip with separate rooms and he could send her to the park with a fanatic - me.

My mother and father divorced and my mom moved back to Minnesota to live. In the mid 1970's, my mom came to California to visit and we told her we wanted to have her spend four days with us during the visit; we did not tell her what our plans were about.

All she knew is that we were flying into an airport in Southern California. We picked up a generic shuttle and until the moment we drove up in front of the Disneyland Hotel she had no idea what she was doing. She chided us for keeping the secret and said she really didn't understand what all the fuss was about. This lasted until we got halfway down Main Street at which point she looked around and looked at us and said, "Oh my God; this is amazing!" We were well into the second day before her inner child came out to play. It was the best Disneyland trip ever.

My beloved Rachel and I during our first couple years of marriage visited Disneyland a number of times (we actually thought about getting a season pass - and we lived in Sacramento!) We've had a number of great adventures.

Now I've come to a place that we will not physically visit Disneyland because of my health challenges and my mobility issues. But you know what? I discovered ALL the Disneyland rides are virtually on the Internet. So I feed my Disneyland addiction often by sitting down and riding my ride virtually.

Thank you God that Walt decided long ago he wanted a place to take his family and thus was birthed a magical kingdom. Magic happens and miracles are everywhere - especially with an Eticket in the happiest place on Earth!