Disney + History + Anita = Good Times (a form of math I can get on board with)

The goal:  the Disney Family Museum

On July 30, I had a great adventure!  Here’s a recap….

The day did not get off to an early start, unfortunately.  Scheduled to pick up my partner-in-crime, Ms. Anita Joy, by 10 a.m., I arrived roughly twenty minutes beyond that appointed time.  But, I quickly bundled Anita into the lovely Stella (my 2008 Dodge Charger) and off we headed for the big city, San Francisco.

You’d think traffic at midday and midweek wouldn’t be so bad.  Au contraire, mon frère.  Stop-and-go from long before Berkeley through the toll plaza gave us the second hint that we wouldn’t arrive at our destination as early as I originally planned.  But, because we are Lorraine and Anita, such a non-stop stream of chatter rang through the car that even the worst gridlock became bearable—and even a little fun. 

Into the City and wending our way through the never-ending Financial District, we soon hit Van Ness Avenue, a street that I feel a fondness for because of its wide lanes and relatively easy traffic flow, not to mention its role as a firebreak in 1906.  Curious Anita performed a quick search on the street name to discover its moniker came from the seventh mayor of San Francisco, James Van Ness.  (Note to Tim Tadlock: Van Ness did have a first name that was not Van, unlike Van Heflin.)  Anita also confirmed her initial belief that the street earned its fame from its many car dealerships, although James Van Ness did not turn out to be one of those original Cal Worthingtons.

Then we entered the Presidio.  And, my goodness, what a beautiful spot!  I’d driven through it before, and this time, as then, I was struck by just how lovely it is.  Established by the Spanish in 1776, this military outpost passed to U.S. hands in 1846.  For nearly 150 years, this amazing locale served the United States Army, and 30,000 Americans are buried in its adjacent national cemetery.  While we did not have a chance to see the cemetery, you can bet your boots I’ll be making a trip there soon. 

The Presidio is so damn beautiful

One of the notables who found himself stationed at the Presidio during the course of his distinguished military career was General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing.  I have a special fondness for General Pershing, an amazing soldier who seems so little recognized these days.  This man, born the year before the Civil War began, proved his mettle on the battlefield and in civilian life over and over again.  Stationed at the Presidio in early 1914, he left Mrs. Pershing and the four children at the post while he went to Texas to deal with Pancho Villa and other troublemakers along the U.S.-Mexican border.  While he was gone, on August 27, 1915, the Victorian house that the Pershing family called home at the Presidio suffered a catastrophic fire, killing Mrs. Pershing and three of the four Pershing children, with only the youngest, a son Warren, surviving.  To cope with his unimaginable grief, General Pershing threw himself back into military work, going on to become one of the heroes of World War I.  In acknowledgment of his military abilities, Pershing was appointed General of the Armies, finding himself in the rare company of George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant.  An amazing man, we can all look to Pershing’s life for a model of bravery and self-sacrifice.

The Pershing home after the fire

Anyway, enough gush about Pershing.  Back to my story….

Hungry girl!

Yvette Woolfolk’s famed parking karma passed to us this fine day, and we found a spot right in front of the Disney Family Museum for the lovely Stella.  After a ridiculously long car ride from Sacramento, lunch beckoned.  While the selection at the Museum café proved meager, we soon found ourselves at a table on the veranda with sandwiches, chili, drinks, and a wonderful dessert custard thingy.  Anita, who constantly finds herself with more food than she can possibly finish, ended up with half a sandwich remaining when she finished her meal.  Reluctant to just throw away all that deliciousness, she hemmed and hawed about what to do.  I spotted a young man on a nearby bench, reading a book and enjoying the beauty of this spectacular sunny and cool San Francisco day.  “Hey, kid.  You look like a starving student.  My friend can’t finish the other half of her sandwich.  Would you like it?”

A very charming Brit

The “kid” turned out to be a 25-year-old young man from England by the name of Matt.  With a week to spare before starting a new job, he came to San Francisco by himself for a holiday.  For half an hour on the veranda of the Disney Family Museum, he engaged in a lively and stimulating conversation with a couple of California women, who happily informed him that they were not carrying guns.  It seems that Europeans possess an image of Americans as a gun-obsessed people—Anita and I did our part to dispel that rumor (in spite of my outings to the gun range).  Possibly the funniest story young Matt told of his vacation days in the City started with him waiting in line at some tourist attraction or another.  Behind him, people were talking about a “shooting contest.”  He heard the people say things like “families welcome” and “bring the kids.”  Astonished that we Americans might include children in our gunplay, he turned around to find that the people in line behind him were discussing another kind of “shooting”—that of basketballs. 

Uncle Walt greets you at the door

After a very pleasant visit with this nice young Brit, Anita and I headed off to see the museum sights.  A special exhibition on Disney artist Mary Blair caught our attention, and we began our visit with an amazing tour of her work.  So gifted, and something of a cutie, Mary had a long career at Disney, as well as in other endeavors.  We both appreciated her use of colors, especially, for Anita, the stunning blue of the night sky over London that Mary developed for her concept paintings for the film Peter Pan.  Mary also had a hand in the creation of the movies Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, as well as traveling to South America during the 1940s when Walt Disney produced both feature films and shorts in connection with the Good Neighbor government policy.  For me, I loved the paintings Mary did while in art school.  Many had historic scenes that spoke to the historian in me and also reminded me of the works of the great Impressionists. 

The amazing Mary Blair exhibit

Anyway, we spent quite a while admiring Mary’s work before we even thought about entering the permanent exhibits at the Museum.  Before starting with those exhibits, we also spent quite some time perusing the room that contained dozens of the awards that Walt Disney won over the course of his lifetime, from all different countries and for all different reasons.  Certainly, his Oscars impressed us a lot, although Anita wondered how he could have been handed his special Oscar for Snow White, with its seven little miniature Oscars for each of the dwarves. 

In this photo, you can get a glimpse of just some of the
display cases featuringWalt Disney's numerous awards

Now, here I need to explain how it is to go to a museum with Anita.  With her sharp wit and quick eye, I find it impossible not to laugh my way through even the most serious of exhibits.  This turned out to be especially true in the room with all the awards.  Rather than reading the boring descriptions of the awards, Anita and I began to make up our own names for the awards, based on the shape and style of each award.  For example, we found what we considered to be a golf trophy, an homage, a best-in-show cup, the Rodin award (graced by The Thinker), the Oscar-who-needs-to-use-the-bathroom award, medals that seemed to be designed by Disney to be awarded to Disney, and much, much more.  So much time did we spend naming the various awards, that we saw only half of the permanent exhibits before heading downstairs to the theater to catch the film on Disney at the World’s Fair.  The exhibits we did see, however, told a lot about Walt Disney the man as well as both the creative and business sides of his career.  This is an actual history museum, not an extension of Disneyland for the Bay Area.  Anyone interested in Disney the man and in his career—this is the place for you.

The fascinating Ms. Joy being fascinated by
the equally fascinating Mr. Disney

On this hundredth anniversary of World War I, Walt Disney’s service in that “Great War” deserves special attention.  Walt’s older brothers, Ray and Roy, joined the U.S. military forces first.  As younger brothers are inclined to do, Walt wanted to follow his brothers off to the adventure.  Born in 1901, Walt did not meet the age requirement for acceptance even into the Red Cross Ambulance Corps (seventeen was the minimum age, and Walt was only sixteen).  When his mother wrote a document stating that Walt was born in 1901, Walt took up the pen when she turned her back and changed the year to 1900.  And into the Ambulance Corps he went.  While he did not see any true military action, the fact that Walt took such drastic measures to serve his country demonstrates the patriotism that so colored his business ventures later in life arose from his early formative years.  This just makes me like him even more.

The Job's Daughter in me loved this

Anyway, back to 2014….

In a tiny theater that looked like it had been designed by the Hot Dog on a Stick people, both Anita and I were delighted to discover that the film offered this day was actually an episode of the old Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color from 1964—you know the one, where Walt himself was the host?  For me, I felt like a time traveler, once again in my parents’ living room, sitting on the floor in front of the television on a Sunday night, my parents playing cribbage in the background, my sister beside me.  Anita, with a well-developed sense of irony, advised that she had always watched the show on her family’s black-and-white set—wonderful world of color indeed!

The film features Walt giving audiences a peek behind the scenes at the creation of the dinosaurs now featured in the Primeval World part of the train ride at Disneyland as well as the making of the Small World Ride.  In fact, the audience rode along on the Small World ride as it existed at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.  What a difference a few decades makes!  The ride as originally designed featured much more distinctive geographic regions, with the ubiquitous song enhanced with the rhythms of each region and the dolls displayed in what may have been the stereotypical images of these regions.  So, which is better?  The watered-down, good-for-all-time-zones version of Small World now, with its careful attention to blurring the lines of distinction between the peoples of the world in order not to offend?  Or the old-timey version where character and culture suffered stereotyping but where distinction was acknowledged and celebrated?  Hmmmmm….

Anyway, after the film, the mandatory trip to the gift shop came next.  Many books certainly called to me, but, in the spirit of downsizing my considerable household collection of stuff, including books, I refrained.  For those readers who know me, this proved a HUGE act of self-denial.  I did purchase a charm for my new Pandora bracelet, gifts for my girls, and, of course, a magnet for my refrigerator.  Anita escaped with only a ceramic mug and a note pad.  All in all, I’d say we both exercised remarkable restraint.

Possibly the best Disneyland ride of all time

Then it was time to head for home.  But, first, a drive around the Presidio was in order—but not for the reasons you may think.  Anita had a recollection of the world’s largest Burger King being housed on the post, and nothing would do but that we search for it.  Which we did, to no avail (later research revealed that the post no longer offers the world’s largest Burger King, damnit!).  The drive back through the City to get to the freeway served as yet another chance to talk non-stop during a traffic jam.  By the time we got over the Carquinez Bridge, hunger pangs commenced.  And Anita craved crunchy tacos.  A quick stop at a freeway-side Taco Bell, and I found myself eating a burrito while hurling Stella down I-80 in the lowering darkness.

Arrived home, safe and sound, by 9:30, after having dropped Anita at her doorway.  This adventure proved so much fun and so interesting, I fully expect there to be many more in my future.  I cannot adequately describe how fortunate I am in having friends—Anita, Yvette, even my daughters—with whom I can go on such adventures.  As ever, I’m one lucky chick.