Oh, for a day at Disneyland!
Sunshine blinking off flower petals, with smooth green railings circling the beds.
Stepping from tunnel to Town Square, the Park wraps around you.
Music lilts from somewhere in the background of the blue-skied day.
A day that spreads out before you like a banquet.
Or a Christmas morning.
Promise-filled, wondrous, anticipated.
To feel a bounce in my step and the curve of a smile.
To run my hand down the side of a proud Percheron!
Give me a morning moment on the Hub.
Until clanging bell and piping steam whistle beckon from the distance.
Feet turn and eyes follow.
Through the frontier, over wood-planked porches.
Under trees, beside rivers, beneath mountains.
Breathe in popcorn and butter, jungle water, diesel, musty pavement, Lafitte's Landing's and the Blue Bayou's damp air, locomotive steam and metal brakes, magnolia blossoms, a chlorinated Submarine lagoon, pineapple, rubber snakes in a barrel, fresh peanut brittle, coffee, new and neatly folded t-shirts stacked in the Emporium or conditioned air and upholstery in the Lincoln Theater.
Novel and new, yet deeply familiar.
Give me talking birds, singing flowers, drunken pirates, grinning ghosts, squirting elephants and runaway trains.
Sit me on a wooden bench in the shade.
March a band by me in full sound.
Tire my legs from walking.
Surround me with a crowd.
We'll have fireworks to round things out.
It'll be grand.
So take me.
Take me.
Take me to Disneyland!!
Have a great day, all!
---Mike
