America on Parade

If you're a Disney lover like me, you probably have some Disney books. History books, guidebooks, biographies of Walt Disney, cookbooks... I have all of these. Not a huge collection compared to what some people may have, but a nice mix of Disneyana. My most recent book purchase is a cookbook, Kitchen Magic with Mickey that I got when I was in the Most Magical Place on Earth in April. It's my second Disney cookbook... the first one I bought is called Mickey's Gourmet Cookbook and I bought it for a dollar at a garage sale!

I'll feature each of my books at some point, but today I'm sharing one of the two oldest books in my collection. Both The Art of Walt Disney (the book on the very bottom of my stack; not sure why the photo is so blurry) and America on Parade have a copyright date of 1975 and, if my mom's memory is correct, these books were purchased by her mom for me from the Jewel Tea Man.

Now, I'm fairly certain that anyone reading this will have zero idea what I'm talking about, so here's a quick history lesson. Jewel Tea was a national company that went door to door selling all kinds of household items. Ironically, my research indicates that it started out as a individual who went door to door selling... wait for it... coffee beans! If you know someone who has the "autumn leaf" pattern of dinnerware, this originated with Jewel Tea. My mom and grandma had a lot of these items, and my mom generally would just say she got them from "the tea man".

So, back to Disney. I've loved Disney all my life and apparently I respected the main man himself so much that I referred to him as "Mr. Walter Disney". Because why wouldn't a child say that?! But, that's why my grandma bought me these books. With it being Fourth of July weekend (sort of, anyway... I still have to work tomorrow!) I thought it would be fun to talk about the America on Parade book.

To celebrate the bicentennial in 1976, Disney came up with the idea of this spectacular parade that was a celebration of our history. The parade was called, obviously, "America on Parade" and ran in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. According to the book, the parade consisted "of fifty units depicting milestones and important institutions in American history...". During the summer, the parade was held twice a day. The second showing was at night and concluded with fireworks.

It took almost a year to gather all the research necessary to put on such a huge parade. It was three quarters of a mile in length and lasted almost half an hour from start to finish. The parade featured giant doll-like characters, representing the people of the US. Part of the research involved making sure the costumes the dolls wore were historically accurate.

The cool thing about this book is that it's basically a history book. It tells the history that is depicted in the parade and includes illustrations and photos made by Walt Disney Productions as part of the parade planning. It also includes several pullout sections of photos that were taken during the opening week of the parade in June 1975. The pullout sections show Main Street USA, lined with people, watching the parade.

I love that I have this book in my collection. More than forty years later it's not only a US history book, but it's now also part of Disney's history!

On a side note, as I was pulling all of my books together I also flipped open a couple of my old Disney magazines and came across this gem from 1998. Further proof that nobody throws a birthday party like Disney! I tried googling to see which hometowns were picked, and the only I'm able to find was Sheboygan, Wisconsin (who doesn't like saying "Sheboygan"?!)

I hope everyone in the US has a fantastic Independence Day and that my Canadian friends enjoyed celebrating Canada's Sesquicentennial! And, if by some miracle, someone is reading this outside of either of those countries, I hope you have a magical day!

In Which I Attempt to Write a Book Review Just So I Can Gush About Disney and Get All Philosophical

It's 86º in Buffalo as I type this, and I have chills.

Don't get me wrong. It's still miserably hot and I'm still hating summer. I even posted a picture on Facebook this morning of Anna and Elsa with Anna's quote, "Do the magic!" in an attempt to make it start snowing. Yeah. That didn't work so well. I have no desire to venture outside and I am almost 7000 steps short of my daily 10,000 goal. So I hung out on the internet for a while. And I watched two episodes of season two of 24. Yes, I'm a little behind the times, but courtesy of Amazon Prime and Roku, I can get annoyed by a TV show whenever I want!! Ha.

Then I decided to finish the book I was reading. I started it last week, and made it through about 70% of it. That's where the chills come in.

This is the book I just finished reading, and my eyes are all puffy. It's a very easy read and it's almost like reading one of my beloved Disney trip reports... with the minor difference being that this family totally uprooted their lives so their autistic child could be closer to Disney World.

The author, Ron Miles, is very quick to point out that this isn't a story of a miracle happening. His child, Ben, still has autism. Ron and Ben's mom get divorced. But they, along with Ron's new wife, get to watch their child transform because of Disney. And not only do we get to read about that, but we also get to read about the part the Disney company's employees play in Ben's life. And in some ways, we also get some unexpected closure in relation to a ride many of us have been on that is no longer a part of the Magic Kingdom.

I picked this book because I wanted to hear Ben's story and wanted a dose of Disney and because I think it was cheap on Amazon. (Hey, I'm nothing if not honest!) But what I came away with was not just a touching story. It was more validation that My Happy Place is truly magical and that people who don't see that aren't looking hard enough. Not everyone needs to be a Disney fan. I get that. But honestly, it's more than that. It's about being the kind of person who wants to make the world a better place.

And we can never have too much of that.

This Blog Post is Based on a True Story

Life has a way of throwing you for a loop and sometimes all you're left with is the question,"What the hell just happened?!"

Frequently, it's life occurences:

Receiving test results that are anything but positive

Dealing with the aftermath of a car turning the wrong way down a one-way street

Finding out that til death do us part was only until something better came along

Other times, it's walking into the gym and glancing up at the TVs and seeing nothing but smoke and police cars and headlines about a bombing at the Boston Marathon.

As these stories unfold, it's become pretty standard to question when the movie is going to be made. You know somewhere, someone is already working on the screenplay and subconsciously wondering if Daniel Day-Lewis would be interested in playing an FBI agent. While ex-cop Christopher Dorner's relatively short reign-of-terror was consuming Los Angeles, I couldn't help but think that if this had been a novel-turned-movie that it would be number one at the box office.

There are some stories that I think are importatnt to preserve as a movie, Hollywood poetic license notwithstanding. I thought Argo was very-well done and captured a small, albeit significant, chapter in our country's history. Last weekend, I had the immense pleasure of hearing movie-goers clapping in the theater as Jackie Robinson's story unfolded on the big screen.

But where do you draw the line? Nobody is going to applaud a movie showing Timothy McVeigh as a hard-working, misunderstood schmuck. I don't think that I would be quite so enthralled with the true story of the LA cop and what made him seek his form of revenge on innocent people. As a work of fiction where you're allowed to feel sympathy for what makes the antagonist tick, sure. Bring it on. As a piece that tries to offer insight into why someone would want to turn 26.2 miles of sweat and perserverance into a bloodbath, not so much. And that brings me to a rather perplexing situation I found myself in earlier.

Pain and Gain: Based on a true story. We're told that twice while we're watching it, just in case the insanity of it all made us forget. I left the theater feeling guilty.

It's a movie. Why should I feel guilty?

Because signifcant parts of this movie were very, very true. Others had some liberties taken with them. But ultimately, bad things happened to people. Their lives were changed forever. And this movie was entertaining. And at times, comedic. And number one at the box office.

I'm still struggling with how I feel about that.

Clickety-click here, here, and here to read the original source material. It's fairly long. Or you can click on the book to buy it from Amazon.

Lightening Up the Mood

So heartbroken over the shooting in Colorado this morning. And that's all I can really say about it, because it's just so utterly senseless.

It's the weekend, and I'm ready for some fun. Not sure where I'm gonna find it, but I'm ready for it! Ha.

Found this funny little card on Pinterest... and I have a feeling it was created because of Christian Grey (althought I really have no idea):

Source: iwastesomuchtime.com via Clarissa on Pinterest

Personally, I'm not a fan. Haven't read the books, have no intention of doing so. But I totally get the concept of being in love with a fictional character! I have a loooong list of those I've become smitten with throughout the years:

Steve Andropolous on As the World Turns was probably my first fictional crush. He was followed by other TV characters: Lujack on Guiding Light, Alex P Keaton on Family Ties, Dylan Walsh on 90210, Joey Tribbiani on Friends, Peter Petrelli on Heroes.

*sigh*

I'm a huge Tony Stark fan... and as much as he was criticized, Anakin Skywalker holds a very special place in my heart ♥

My current fictional crush?

Dr Sheldon Cooper.

Bazinga!

Who is your fictional crush?