Item

The End of an Era with Mickey Mouse for Californians

Title (Dublin Core)

The End of an Era with Mickey Mouse for Californians

Description (Dublin Core)

Since 1988, my annual pass has made Disneyland my second home. Growing up within walking distance of the park, randomly deciding to Disneyland to hang out was a normal part of our day. Bored after school? Want to go out to dinner? Want somewhere to walk around? Popping into Disneyland was the answer. It's not just that I spent nearly every 4th of July, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, birthdays, and whatever other holiday there is there, spur of the moment visits for us are like a non Californian deciding to go to Starbucks. Shoot, when my grandparents took me to the park to play as a kid, they meant going to Tom Sawyer's island - to us "the park" is synonymous with what most people call "Disneyland." Married with my own family now, swinging into the park on the regular is still our normal. Before the pandemic, we were at Disneyland a minimum of once a week, even if it was just to go on a couple of rides and grab a bite to eat. Today. for the past two hours, my phone has been buzzing like crazy with people messaging me about the news. As one friend said "it's like our safe space has disappeared." Disneyland has always represented a safe space, a respite from stress and pain and reality. The pandemic truly wasn't real to me until March 12, when Disneyland announced it was temporarily closing its gates by the weekend. We rushed to the park, and, as you can see in my Instagram post, I naively thought we'd be back by April. Reality hadn't set in. Still, through these 10+ months of being home, knowing that we would eventually be back at Disneyland was a beacon of hope. Acknowledging that life after COVID is going to change in ways we didn't consider is setting in now. I realize for someone who didn't grow up in the shadow of the castle, this all probably seems strange. But losing daily access to the place you have been the most for the past 33 years is a sobering moment.

Date (Dublin Core)

January 14, 2021

Creator (Dublin Core)

Kathryn Jue

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Kathryn Jue

Type (Dublin Core)

Photographs
screenshot

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Recreation & Leisure
English Social Media (including Memes)
English Emotion

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

second home
Disneyland
safe space
gone
hope
sobering moment

Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)

Disneyland
shock
annual passholder
sadness
empty
California

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

A tray that says "When life throws you a rainy day, play in the puddles".Disneyland Main Street After Closure Announcement

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

01/14/2021

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

02/03/2021

Item sets

Covid 19

This item was submitted on January 14, 2021 by Kathryn Jue using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive

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