A wet welcome to the World Part 1

One of the advantages of living in Florida is our close proximity to Walt Disney World. That combined with the fact that we get the 100% cast member discount on admission (thank you, honey) means we hit up the parks fairly regularly.

This last week my mother-in-law was visiting. We struck up a discussion about the World. She was telling me how she had only been to WDW once, when she was a very young child. I scratched my head for a bit, doing some mental math.

"How young?" I asked.

"Two. I must not have liked it much, because I don't remember a single thing about it."

It didn't take rocket science for me to figure out that someone had been misleading her about her Disney experience. She could see it on my face.... I knew something that she didn't want to hear. She reluctantly asked me what I was thinking about.

"Well, it's not possible that you went to WDW here in Florida when you were two. It didn't open until 1971."

What followed was not pretty. I suppose realizing that your parents have not been quite honest about an experience like Disney is a bit shocking to the system. I instantly felt a great sense of remorse. Why, oh why, couldn't I have just let the delusion of childhood bliss continue? She was like a child who just realized that there is no happy puppy farm in the country. I've never felt so terrible.

I decided to fix the situation that I created. "Let's go to Disney. It's only noon. We have a good part of the day left to see things."

Oh. My. God. She was like a kid who had just heard about Santa for the first time. My middle-aged mother-in-law jumped up and down, squealing and clapping her hands wildly. I felt a huge sense of pride and accomplishment, that I had repaired the broken dreams of her childhood. Oh, if I had only looked out the window and before I made the suggestion. I would spend the rest of the day cursing my aversion to watching the news.