Happy 110th Birthday!!!!

It's kind of weird to offer birthday wishes to someone posthumously but I felt compelled, today, to say "Happy  Birthday Walt!"

He's been there for me throughout my whole life.  Seriously.  There was a cute little wall hanging above my crib of Mickey Mouse holding Morty and Ferdie (those are Mickey's nephews, FYI) by their tails over a big washtub full of bubbles because they had jammy hands. 

Once I could walk, I used to hold one person parades around the coffee table in my parents' living room to the scratchy record I had of the Mickey Mouse March. "Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?  M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!"  Over and over again until I drove my poor mother crazy.

My first vacation to Disney World was at age three, right before I became a big sister. 

Childhood was filled with movies and TV specials like "The Wonderful World of Disney" where Tink would fly across the screen before the castle came up on the screen.  And it wasn't just Mickey Mouse and animation.  There's a whole spectrum of nature specials about animals and live action movies that are a lot more wholesome (read: corny)  than some of the "family programming" that's available today.


I'm old enough to remember the first VCR that my family bought.  That sucker was huge and the video tape went into a pop-up door on the top.  The remote had a WIRE!  It cost something like $800.  The first videos that my family bought?  I remember Dumbo and one of my favorite movies ever, Pete's Dragon.

Walt was the original voice of Mickey.  Walt persevered through times of financial hardship, when no one believed in him or the work he was doing.  He was truly an brilliant businessman, an innovator and an icon.  My live would have been very different if not for the life and work of Walt Disney.

So thank you, Mr. Disney, happy birthday, and thank you for my lifetime full of believing in magic and pixie dust and wishes that come true.