One of mom's favorite stories about her grandmother is from their family trip to DisneyWorld.
It was the first year the park opened, and there wasn't much there. Just DisneyWorld, surrounded by dozens of acres of orange groves. At one point, they rode the monorail out to an a-frame building, which contained renderings for future park development.
"Mmmmm-hmmm. That Walt Disney sure is a big dreamer!" My great-grandmother said in a loud southern drawl.
My great grandmother was very much a child of the Great Depression. The stories told to me by my mother and her siblings depict a frugal, no nonsense sort of woman. She packed picnic baskets with fruit and sandwich fixings on cross country road trips, rather than pay for expensive processed snack foods and restaurant meals. She took home half-squeezed lemon wedges from restaurants to rub on her skin, because they were still good and shouldn't go to waste. Bananas were a cure-all wonder drug, and aspirin was saved for true emergencies.
This is exactly the sort of woman who would look at an orange grove in Florida and think that it would always be just an orange grove in Florida.
As we drove to Disney's Hollywood Studios (we skipped The Magic Kingdom, having visited Disneyland many times already), I couldn't help but wonder what my mom's grandmother would think of Walt Disney's big dreams if she could see the area some forty years on. The parks are still fairly secluded, set back in the trees and visible only once you enter the parking lot. But there are so many more of them now: The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon. There are also hotspots for shopping and nightlife, and endless resorts catering to every type of visitor.
I think my great grandmother would be appalled at the audaciousness and extravagance of it all. How wasteful to spend hundreds of dollars to ride roller coasters and take home cheap toys. What self-respecting adult would dress up in long robes in the hot Florida sun just for Star Wars Weekend. Why is there a giant golf ball in the middle of this park?
But maybe a little part of her would be impressed. One man's dream transformed the wilderness into a tourist mecca. A vision that captured the imagination of her great granddaughter, who made it one of her goals in life to visit that place, ride those rides, and see what exactly was inside that golf ball. (An increasingly dated looking journey through time, currently narrated by Judi Dench.)
In any case, I'm sure she's giving Walt an earful up in heaven. Nobody should have to pay $14 just to park their car.
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