As promised in Part 1 of this article, I left out the most important part of my 20-year celebration at Disney. As always, Patti is the most important part of any story. We were enjoying our time at California Adventure with all my 10+ year celebrators. One of Patti’s favorite rides was the Tower of Terror. They converted it to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride several years ago. She still enjoys it, but not as much as when it was the Tower of Terror. Having seen all the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, I like the ride better. When we got off the ride, we looked around Hollywood Land to see if they had any interesting food or drinks. We were getting in line for a drink that looked good when Patti saw her. All thought of drinks went out of her head, and we made our way to visit Patti’s favorite Disney character. I’ll explain the history of her obsession in the next paragraph. Oh yeah, and I’ll tell you who that character is.
Patti and I both have a fondness for cats. A movie came out the same year I was born called The Aristocats. The main character is Duchess who has three kittens named Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse. Marie is a little white cat who raises the bar on the cuteness scale. One of her best lines from the film is, “Ladies do not start fights, but they can finish them!” This pretty much sums up Patti. She had a baseball jersey made with a picture of Marie and Patti’s name. Not just Marie, but all three kittens from the movie were ready to take a picture. This was quickly becoming Patti’s favorite visit to the park ever.
We got in line to take our picture with Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse. The cast members could see the excitement on Patti’s face. When they saw her shirt, they knew they were dealing with a super fan. It seemed to brighten their day to see an adult get as excited as a child meeting their favorite character for the first time. For Patti, this may have been the only time she saw Marie in the park. When we were next, the photographer took a picture of Patti’s elated face. Her mouth was open, and she looked like she was screaming with joy. Each of the kittens gave her individual attention, including giving her hugs. I just tried to stay out of the way and not ruin the pictures. The photographer took 20 pictures of the event. He captured every interaction between Patti and the kittens. As I mentioned, I was there too.
We stayed later in the park than we would have on a regular visit. I ate way more than I should have and ate things I probably should have eaten, but that is a part of any celebration. Regretting things the next day means you had a good time. As we were leaving the park, they gave us a newspaper that had all the names of the cast members celebrating that day. It took me a while, but I found myself. The 45+ year cast members were on the front page with individual pictures. Disneyland is over 70 years old, but people rarely work that long at one company. Most people don’t live that long.
That I worked 20 years at one job was uncertain at times. I went through being fired, changing work locations, a pandemic, and a few rough patches here and there, but I was still working at the happiest place on Earth. Working at Disneyland differs from any other job I’ve had. I’ve never worked somewhere that was internationally famous. Daily, I hear and see ads for my workplace. I always tell people, “It beats working a real job.” After all these years, I still feel that way. I don’t know if I’m going to make it 30 years before I retire, but if I do, I won’t regret any of it.
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