Disney Delights

In the 1960's if you lived in California Disneyland was a great place if you were in Junior High. Your parents would drop you off and it only cost $1.20 for 12-17 yr olds to get in. And the great thing is that there were girls. Girls liked Disney and better yet, the parents of these girls liked Disney and they would drop them off as well. It was the once place that in Junior High you could spend an entire evening and be some place where there was girls and no parents to bother you.

I wanted to be older. When you are 14 older is 16 or 17 seems elderly and you had to have the stuff .......you had to carry. Not the same as now...but it was contraband nevertheless. I would sneak across to local hamburger joint Zesto's during the week or the Saturday before and buy a bunch of cigarettes, Zesto's had a cigarette machine outside and to the left of the order window. When you were in Junior High smoking was cool. So, I would cruise into the magic kingdom with not only my own supply of Marlboros but a supply of Kools or Kents as well.

I had a friend from Fitz Junior High who had an older brother and he had a car. Never mind that it was a 1949 studebaker.......no paint...........torn front seats..........no seat in the back.....just bare metal........and there was rust in the back and if you got the right angle you could see the drive train go round and round as the asphalt blasted past.




We would go into Disney and for me there was one prerequisite for the evening. I had to go to the Pirate Ship and get a grilled tuna sandwich. I remember there were .60cents and for .20cents more it came with chips. I still remember that sandwich. I have tried to duplicate it but...just cannot. It was toasted and grilled but moist and the tuna was sweet and it tasted like real tuna not the canned junk we see today. If you have ever eaten sushi quality fresh tuna you know of which I speak. Followed up of course by a Coke. No one would ever have thought of an alternative. No diet....7-UP or a bubble-up maybe....or I might spring for a quality lemonade but it was coke in those days.

And off one went.....of course you had to light up, it was that which communicated ....."

I am here and my Parents are not within miles of the place".

I remember meeting a very cute blonde from far far away Downey who asked...."You mean you parents just dropped you off and they are not here" The level of incredulity was so thick it took me a few assurances to convince her I was not joking. Lighting that Marlboro seemed to do the trick. Just don't light it up in front of one of the giant six foot plus security guards. And keep moving ....don't stop and smoke so parents of other kids have to answer the question ......."Where are their parents" and then one of the giant security guards might come and hassle you and call your parents. It had been done!

I you met a girl there were the good rides to take young females on. Peter Pan's ride...it was dark, ditto for Mr. Toad's and Alice in Wonderland, the Matterhorn was great because you got to be behind and .........of course the skyway was not bad as long as you did not mind the gawkers going the other way. It was mostly walking and being someplace that mattered.

The summer between the 8th and 9th grade I met and fell for a lovely young woman from Granada Hills. I had an inclination where Granada Hills was but it was a bit hazy. Her name was Sharon. I remember her cute flower printed sun dress she wore. She had said she had just come back from the "river" and was tan. I have always liked tan lines. I remember the dress had these huge sunflowers, something not unusual in the sixties. It was yellow and the flowers were white and green. She had white and green ribbons in her blonde hair. She wore cute green sandals that matched. And unlike many of the other young women in Junior Highville she had become curvy. Something I noticed and liked.

When you are in Junior High and your main ride has holes in the back floor board, Granada Hills is a long ways away. Just for historic accuracy in 2000 I drove from Orange County to Granada Hills in my rented Mustang Convertible and it was a long haul. Yet week after week that summer her Father would pack up she and a friend......sometimes it seemed these friends were interchangeable and there she would be just about 5:30 Saturday afternoon in front of the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Boat.

Parents trusted Disney. It was safe. They had security. It was a known commodity and a gorgeous 13 year old with an overdeveloping body and tan lines should be safe at the Land that Walter built.

But..........no in that innocent 1965 world where Spin and Marty still hung out at the Dude Ranch. It was a good summer. That girl loved to kiss, forget about me...she loved to kiss! Get into Peter Pans ride and .........bang lip lock. Over and over.......I knew ......." here we go...up up and away".......it was always a challenge to smootch while Mr. Toad was thumpin down the rail road tracks towards hell. She could bend her kneck back riding the Matterhorn.....one forgot it was a roller coaster. She loved to kiss and found a joy in kissing that today delights my small mind some forty two years later. It was joy in touch that was hers. I remember eating an ice cream cone on main street sitting on the curb....she molded her body to fit into mine. Not sure how she did it but it was a natural thing. Not contrived or thought of ....it just seemed like she fit. We found ourselves alone each Saturday...everyone else, my friends who I had come with and her friend or friends would just disappear. We never quite noticed but would be by ourselves. And we would look to find a ride to smootch. It was a pastime. Never rushed ...never hurried and I found the softness and the slowness that a tender and light kiss brings. My mouth would tickle and my breath would just evaporate. I believe if we had known each other as adults we would have brought ourselves to unconsciousness....but that is another whole thought.

I remember one of her friends she had brought from Granada Hills became quite irritated when I came into the picture one evening. It was my thought that she had been a last minute replacement and was not prepared for "boys", meaning me as part of the evening. She asked the girl to stay but she left and it was not until the bewitching hour when they had to leave that she showed up at the circle in front of the Castle. At just about 11pm she would have to race to the front of the park and her father would be there waiting to pick her up.

I remember one night realizing I had not smoked one cigarette that evening. It was merely a prop. Trying to be older or .......at least to desire to appear like "The Thin Man" or some other movie noteable.

And then one Saturday night she was not there. I had her phone number....I really never knew if Sharon had my number. But, it was long distance. In my house that was a big thing. So, the next day I asked my Mom if I could call a friend I had met at Disney who lived in Granada Hills.

" This a friend, a boy you met at Disney", my Mother asked. With that look that only a way too knowledgable Mother might employ.

" Well......someone I met at Disney, Can I call them"?, I silently pleaded without wanting to give up the goods.

" Ok, but remember long distance is not cheap", she chided like the butcher who is speaking of a bad cut of meat.

"OK, Ok, OK", I said as the reality sunk in I would have to find a place to call. So, I took the princess phone from my parents room and hooked it up in the living room as far away from any inquiring minds as I could.

"May I speak with Sharon please," I said in the tone of voice which most resmembled Eddie Haskell I have ever used. And bingo it was her. She was shocked.

"How did you remember my number......(I never had the chance to tell her I kept it like a secret swiss bank account)....I could not go....my folks aren't going to let me go to Disney anymore.", everything blurted out at once. And it one second I knew how Romeo felt when confronted with confrontational parents. I wanted to say let us run away somewhere.......find another place to go on Saturday night, just let me smell the prell in your hair and wonder how those lips got so soft. I wanted to say....I have never felt better being around someone in my life and I like the person I am around you. But, I did not quite say that. I said...."That is too bad what happened"?

"Well, remember Debbie, Well she told her Mom I was meeting a High School boy and she told my Mom and My mom told my Dad and my Dad talked to me but he really did not talk to me he yelled and I cried and tried to tell him I didn't do anything like Debbie said and he said if I was meeting and hanging out with strange boys and tried to say you were not strange but a nice boy and he said that Debbie had told her Mom who told my Mom that I was being loose and I think she is just jealous because last year there was a boy we both liked who went to our church and she didn't like him later and I did and she has really like me since but I needed someone to go to Disney or I could then my Mom talked to me and warned me that I have to watch out for boys because you can pregant and I just said that I had kissed and nothing else nothing that I should ever be ashamed of and I wish I could do it again and I liked it and ......they said they are not going to let me go again ..................never a breath taken! It was amazing.

I had been walking for weeks with a calm, sophisticated and I am certain sometime in her life a creative nymphomaniac but right at that moment she was a frustrated 13 year old who was brave and told her parents she liked kissing a boy, me and she knew what she was doing.

I never saw her again. I tried to call the next week but that call was interupted by her mother who said she could not come to the phone. I called once again in a week or so and it was a repeat of the same. Soon, life seemed to have moved on and I did not go back to Disney much the summer between 9th and 10th grades. It was not the same.

I called one time when I was a junior. We both had boyfriend and girlfriend each and I told her she was the best kisser I ever knew and she said I was the sweetest boy she ever knew and why didn't I live closer. The next year I did have a drivers license but by then.............well, it was later and there was this beautiful girl named Susan.

And later Disney was a great date place, a fun place. Disney was safe, they had security and parents trusted Mickey and his giant 6ft tall security guards. And it had dark places........but i have to admit, ...there is only one first time when you smell fresh prell and feel the touch of silky skin creme and there are ..........tan lines and she is curvy and she melts when you put your arm around her, she melts when you put your arm around her and that look ..........even forty two years later.