THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH

Growing up in Southern California had its advantages - one was a yearly pilgrimage to Disneyland. It was an annual event, and one of the biggest if not the best family outings of the year. As a child, I thought it was the most amazing place, like walking into a storybook - which I'm sure is exactly what Walt wanted. As an adult, the facades are more hokey than enchanting, and you are more inclined to wait in an hour-long line for a "faster" ride than you are in a shorter line for a "cuter" ride.

I went to Disneyland a couple days ago with someone who had never been. At first you feel like they are going to react the way you did when you first stepped foot on those hallowed Disney grounds - nothing less than a "Wow, this place is great!" But this Disneyland virgin (DV) was an adult, with an adult's point of view. He thought it was fun, but it certainly didn't hold the "magic" as it would for someone, let's say, 30 years younger. Initially, I was puzzled, "How can he not be enchanted by this place?" Then I came to realize that places like Disneyland, when revisited as an adult, evoke all the memories of awe that you had when you were young. The DV's best impressions of the park: He loved the Indiana Jones Adventure and even threatened to wrestle control of the jeep's steering wheel away if the little boy in our row had wanted the faux controls. He liked It's A Small World - but was ready to smash the first animatronic if the song had gone on one second longer. We both enjoyed the Johnny Depp incarnation in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride - and we both freaked out at different points on the Ferris wheel with swinging gondolas. The park was not very congested and the lines were short - we covered all bases worth covering and our only real complaint was aching feet at day's end.



I also looked for new impressions of Disneyland to take with me as an adult. The first was seeing a group of small toddlers gathered and looking at something on the ground - we leaned in over them expecting to see some Disney wind-up toy, and instead eyed a small grey mouse on the faux cobblestone walkway. Wish I gotten a snapshot - I am sure Walt's head was spinning in his cybergenic jar. However, the biggest impression was NOT the 50th anniversary "Parade of Dreams" with Julie Andrews' recorded intro and an eerie old sound-bite of Walt himself... nor was it the lofty firework finale (which I only caught a bit of as the DV was quite Disneyed-out by that point and itching to make a clean, traffic-less exit). Oh, no, my friends, it was the pretzels. They were made - like so many other souvenirs and candy - to look like Mickey Mouse's face. I found this the most compelling sight of the day - and waited in a very long line just to buy one of these overpriced mousifications. It was delicious and piping hot out of the little pretzel oven, but there was also some morbid satisfaction in knowing I was devouring the mouse in some fashion.