The crowd of people stood, murmuring quietly, waiting for him to arrive. The castle stood, with it’s fresh paint and glistening gold banners, timeless as always. The man finally arrived, slightly stooped, his once black hair a dark grey, still slicked, and dressed in a simple grey suit, identical to the one he wore the first time he appeared in this place. His hand shook oh-so-slightly, as he adjusted the microphone, then, his eyes glistening with mirth, and his mustache twitching very slightly, he spoke.
“To all of you here today, Welcome. Disneyland is my greatest dream, made brick and mortar. Here, I, and those who took over while I slept, brought to life storybook adventures and historical fantasies. Now, Fifty years later, I look on these lands of Fantasy, Adventure, the great Frontier, the vibrant promise of Tomorrow, and even the Town my Toons call home, and I can’t help but smile. Even I will admit there have been some bumps along the way, from the gate-crashers the first day, to the sorrowful accidents on my Big Thunder Railroad…But, as long as children, and people of ALL ages are able to walk up that Main Street USA, and seeing that Castle, grin like all their stresses never happened, then Disneyland will stand strong. So, on this 50th year since A fool with too much money to waste *chuckle* opened his little experiment in an orange grove on July 17, 1955, I’d like to paraphrase what I said on that happy if a bit hectic day:
To all those who come to this happy place….Welcome. Disneyland is and Always will be your land, forever, as long as you believe you can wish upon a star, as long as you believe pirates and fairies exist, as long as you dream of the rip-roaring wild towns of the Old West…In a word, as long as you dream.â€