Family vacation has become a tradition of sorts with the Ward family. It started with my parents before I, the oldest of three children, was even thought of. Each of the three years preceding my birth my parents visited countries in Central and South America. They tried to continue their yearly trips once I was born, but my grandmother would not allow them.
My grandmother quite often told me the story of how when I was six months old my parents went to "that far place" and left their brand new baby girl at home with her for two whole weeks and did not call one time to check on me. My grandmother told me that story so many times I do not think that I will ever forget it. My grandmother lived in a very small (I think the new politically correct word may be cozy) house, and she shared with me how my parents brought all of my stuff, including my crib that nearly took up her entire bedroom, to her house as if they had no intention of returning for me. I think that was her fear, that they had left me there with her and moved to "that far place", which happened to be Guetemala. Suffice to say there were no more trips for my parents there after.
I vaguely remember going on a trip with my parents when I was a toddler to one of the family islands in my home, the Bahamas, but it was not until I was six years old that the real Ward Family Vacation tradition began. It was that year that we first visited Disney World. Disney World was a place that I was very familiar with and had secretly longed to visit for as long as I knew it exited. I never supposed in my wildest imagination that there was a way that we could leave my little island home and go to this far place. I had been on a plane once that had taken my mother, cousins and I to Miaim, but that did not seem very far to me because the plane ride had not been that long. But a magical place like Disney World had to be at a least a million miles away from my little isalnd. You could imagine my unadutlerated excitement when my parents announced a trip to Disney World.
My sister, Denise, was two years old at the time. She was just as excited as I was. We were going to Disney World! I was right too. It was a very long journey to get there. First, we flew on the plane to Miami where we stayed over night in a nice hotel, the Omni Hotel on Biscayne Boulevard, which is now the Hilton. The next day very early in the morning, earlier than I had ever had to get up, we boarded a bus. It was still dark outside and the bus was what I imagined was beyond freezing point. From there the bus driver drove us to a place called Orlando where we checked into another hotel. By this time I was very anxious and thought that we may never get to Disney World. We had to then get back on the bus and to my delight within a short time arrived at Dinsey World.
It was really all too much for my little brain to take in. It was like everything inside the television shows I watched and books I read had come to life. In the back of my mind I suspected that Mickey, Donald and the gang were not really real, but I had enough imagination to believe that they coud be real. There was Dumbo from Dumbo's Big Top. I loved to watch that show on the Disney Channel. There was Pooh Bear, Piglet, Tigger and E'or from Winnie the Pooh. There was Snow White and the Seven Dwafts along with Sleeping Beauty. Then right before my eyes was Cinderella's castle! My parents let us have candy, ballons, mouse ears and almost anything we asked for.
And that is how it all began. We went back to visit Disney every year there after. Soon my brother, Quincy, was born and joined in making magical memories with us. Since we are all adults now, we have went on other family trips to more grown up destinations. We have been to various parts of the United States and travelled through out the Caribbean. My sister currently lives in Africa and has travelled to parts of Europe and Asia. Still no matter where we go Disney is still our favorite. This year we return as a family to where the tradition began and we are having a magical time.
A friend of mine jokingly said to me that I am too old for Disney World. Disney does not hold the same meaning as an adult that it did when I was six years old. Today I see the magic a little differently. The reason that I love Disney so much has very little to do with the theme parks and more to do with with the man himself, Walter Elias Disney. I find something very alluring, magical if you will, about a man who instead of just thinking about a thing, dared to do that thing. Making Disney Land a reality was no easy feat and many nay sayers of Disney's day said that it would be a failure.
Mr. Disney started off in animation. His first famous character was not Mickey Mouse, but rather a rabbit named Oswald. He lost all the rights to Oswald through a loop hole in his contract to a large distribution company that also has theme parks in Orlando. Mr. Disney left New York very disappointment and discouraged to learn about Oswald, but it was on the train ride from New York back to his home in California that he first sketched Mickey Mouse. We all know how successful Mickey went on to be. The money he made from Mickey allowed him to build an animation studio, which allowed him to make alot of the classics we know and love today. Snow White and Seven Dwarfs was the first full length animated movie ever, and a box office hit.
The idea for Disney Land came to Mr. Disney when he could find no place where both he and his daugthers could have an enjoyable time when he took them on their weekly "daddy/daughter day" . He started to think up the idea of Disney Land, a place that both parents and children would enjoy. Mr. Disney loved Disney Land but wanted a more private location for his theme park. That is when he learned of some swamp land in Orlando that was selling pretty cheapily. He bought a great deal of the land under various aliases because he knew that if the sellers found out that it was him buying the land the price would go up dramatically. They did find out it was him purchasing the land. The price increased, but it was after he had already purchased most of the land.
He incorporated that land as two seperate cities, Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake. This land is approximately half the size of the island I grew up on on! He started to build Disney World. Even though, at the time, he had only just began to build Magic Kingdom, Mr. Disney had the whole Disney World as we know it today sketched out. He never lived to see any of that or even the opening of Magic Kingdom.
I believe that anything good orginates in the mind of God. Every good idea is a God given idea. Just like God gave Moses instructions on how to build the Ark of the Covenant, Noah instructions to build the Ark and David instructions on how to build the Temple, I believe God gave Mr. Disney the blue print of Disney World. It is an example that if you can conceive it, you can achieve it. A lot of times we are too afraid of our imagination becasue that thing we dream seems too grand, too unrealistic. My goodness how realistic was the idea of Disney Land when there was nothing like it in existence?
I love Disney becasue it represents for me the notion that no dream is impossible. If God gives me an idea, it is not for me to day dream about, it is for me to act on. Now not all of us are going to build multi billion dollar corporations, but some of us can. Only a few of us will.
I think what would have happened if Noah had not built the Ark. What would have happened if he spent all those years thinking about building the Ark. Even though Disney is a "magical" place magic, wishful thinking, hoping has absolutely nothing to do with how it came about. It came about because of action. The Bible says that faith without works is dead and the same is with a dream. A dream without work is also dead. Dream big and then do big.
