That’s Disneyland Jake

 





That’s Disneyland Jake


     What happens when you combine best friends, LSD and the Magic Kingdom? The line seen here is but a small but memorable snippet of a day we will never forget. The strong acid was taken by Smith, Creason and Sheehy but the Bobcat  was there with his cool cousin Linda from Kentucky. It was circa 1975 and we were three girls short of  date-normal. The day had it's ups and downs like any psychedelic journey but for the most part of the trip,  this time at Walt's Fort Knox was four stars in outer space. We were very high and just the people at the park were entertainment/bizarre enough but the rides were bonus times among the hallucinogenic chemicals. We could not stop laughing and in our youthful self consciousness that was sometimes hard to suppress, like when a humanitarian group lead some severely mentally challenged kids past us and we were guffawing about some inside joke. We had to zip it or have them feel like we were laughing at their misfortune. The images are a bit hazy after pert near 50 plus years but D-land was all shiny and bright with some clouds passing over our fried brains. When I rode the "Doom Buggy" in the Haunted Mansion solo with Kevin and Greg in one car, Bob and Linda in another I felt beyond awkward and assumed everyone was looking at the poor grown man sharing his buggy all by his weird lonesome with the hitchhiking ghosts as reflected joining him in the finale. Monsanto's World of the Atom also turned out to be a not so wise choice for a claustrophobic space cowboy but the Skyway to Fantasyland was all of that.  One of our favorite movies of the time was the great Chinatown with Jack Nicholson and we all could quote dialogue. As we stood on the bow of the Mark Twain stern-wheeler churning over the Rivers of America Kevin spoke disparingly about the foolishness of  the theme of the park "America on Parade" and I put a hand on his shoulder and said "forget it Jake, it's Disneyland." It could have been Kevin saying the line to me or Greg being told the line by either of us but the point is the line was perfect for the moment and the hearty laughter of youth ensued. While thoroughly buzzed we were just part of America on Parade and have used the phrase many times accepting reality for five decades.




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