A few weeks ago I was in Anaheim and wrote the following:
Sitting in a hotel room outside of (because my conference is next door in the conference center) on a Sunday night brings back memories of a family trip we took over thirty years ago. I remember sitting in a hotel room on a Sunday, with manicured bushes trimmed in the shape of animals outside, so excited to be going to Disneyland the next day. I wonder where that hotel room is. Maybe its the same one and animal bushes have gone out of style.
1. I was so excited to get the chance to drive the little race cars that went around the track that I ended up leaving my camera in the car. The camera that I had saved up for months and months. And thus began my career as a destroyer/loser of cameras.....
2. Going to a Sambo's pancake house that had pictures of the story of Sambo, a boy in (India?) who is treed by four hungry tigers, but gives them his fine clothes after which they become jealous of each other and chased each other around the tree until the turn into butter. Thinking it was really cool that you could turn tigers into butter and wondering if you could do that with other animals.
3. I learned my first lesson in capitalism. I don’t remember the exact details, but it had something to do with soda drinks. I somehow thought that since we were at Disneyland the place built for kids, that they gave kids drinks. My dad explained that wasn’t about being a magic place for kids, it was about making money.
4. I remember wanting to ride on the submarine but we didn't have enough A tickets, back when Disney assigned rides A, B, or C status.
5.I also remember being excited that I was tall enough to ride the Matterhorn, but being disappointed that I couldn’t ride on Space Mountain
6. I remember really, really wanting mickey mouse ears. There was a show on TV, the mickey mouse club, where the kids all had the mickey mouse hats. Both my older sister and I got them and I think they stuck around or house for nearly 10 years in more and more tattered forms. Just a piece of felt and two pieces of plastic stapled on, and they meant the world to me as a child. I also really, really wanted a davy crockett coon skin cap. Now I live in Davy Crockett's homeland and see dead raccoons with some frequency. Haven’t had an urge to wear one on my head for some time.
