Elias Disney

                                                                   Elias Disney
     I finally watched "Saving Mr. Banks."  I did it reluctantly.
     Disneyland was a part of my childhood.  I was born in Southern California, and spent the first handful of my childhood years living close enough to Anaheim to visit Disneyland on a number of occasions.  We also went there whenever we returned to see family, or when I had hip procedures done at Orthopedic Hospital.  Two of the Disneyland trips that stand out for me were the visits before my first and third hip surgeries, at two and six years-of-age.  I remember seeing the character Eeyore, interacting with Pooh and other Disney characters, on Main Street during one of those visits.  I saw the pin that held Eeyore's tail in place, and I decided he had been operated on at Orthopedic Hospital in Los Angeles by Dr. Craig, just like me.  I thought Dr. Craig looked like Walt Disney, and Dr. Craig had put pins in my hip.  Before one of my surgeries, while I was being led down the hospital corridors, the tail came off of my favorite stuffed animal, Ratty, and Dr. Craig performed a tail-reattachment procedure, which in my mind, confirmed my beliefs about Eeyore and Dr. Craig.
     My mom sang Mary Poppins' songs to my sister and I when we were tots.  I read a children's book about Walt Disney when I was about ten, and he grew mythically for me.  For many years, I carried the secret belief that Walt had not died when I was a year old, he had simply gone undercover as an orthopedic surgeon. 
     My last visit to Disneyland was in my teens, and the magic was still there for me, even though I no longer thought I believed in magic.  My mom and sister later took my three children to Disneyland over Christmas break in '98, and they had a great time, too.  It is, after all, the Magic Kingdom.
     When I first heard about "Saving Mr. Banks," I thought it was one of those movies that might expose the illusions I had built around Disneyland, and Mary Poppins, and Walt Disney.  I was reluctant to let go of those illusions.  So I did not watch the movie.  But my mom recently told me I should see it, and some of my favorite actors are in it, so I broke down and watched the movie. 
     I was not prepared for how it would make me feel, but it did not destroy any of my old illusions.  Instead, it matured them.  The next time I watch Mary Poppins, the character of Mr. Banks will mean more to me.  If I ever visit Disneyland again, when I look up toward Elias Disney's office window, that place will also mean more.
     All parents, at one time or another, break their children's hearts.  It is inevitable.  The damage can create waves of pain that echo for generations.  But sometimes magic happens.  Elias Disney probably believed he was raising his sons the way kids should be raised.  It is apparent that Walt and Roy experienced a lot of pain, though.  But out of that pain, Disneyland was born.  Elias Disney was an integral part of creating the Happiest Place on Earth.
     That, is magic.