"Kelley, Please report to the Disneyland information office."

Disneyland!

When I was a little girl I was quite the daydreamer. That probably wont come as a surprise those of you who know me. I spent so much time dreaming and looking for tiny treasures among the everyday things that I many times, never heard anyone who was talking to me. My Mom would call me several times before she could break the spell of my imagination, and always said I was somewhere lost in Fantasyland. We had a family joke about it. When I was busy daydreaming my big sister would say, "Kelley, please report to the Disneyland information office!"

It was no less than ironic that just after graduation from high school I was hired at Disneyland. Even funnier, I was hired to work at a restaurant in Fantasyland! It was the sweetest job ever. Disneyland treated their employees great and I had a gazillion friends. As an employee, I only fell deeper in love with the Magic Kingdom. I've been in love with the park for over 40 years and as a mother we visit Disneyland no less than once a year.

So, in attempt to show you Disneyland from my point of view, here are the pages from my hand made book titled "Childhood." I only made 5 of these books in attempt to create a portrait of a place that holds a very special spot in my heart.

When I sent this book to my Mom, she said the most wonderful thing about it was that she was finally able to see what it was I was looking at all those years...

Here are a few pics or what four of the books look like.

Here is what's inside:

Childhood

Childhood, sweet and sunny childhood,

With its careless, thoughtless air,

Like the verdant, tangled wildwood,

Wants the training hand of care.

See it springing all around us

Glad to know, and quick to learn;

Asking questions that confound us;

Teaching lessons in its turn.

Who loves not its joyous revel,

Leaping lightly on the lawn,

Up the knoll, along the level,

Free and graceful as a fawn?

Let it revel; it is nature

Giving to the little dears

Strength of limb, and healthful features,

For the toil of coming years.

He who checks a child with terror,

Stops its play, and stills its song,

Not alone commits an error,

But a great and moral wrong.

Give it play, and never fear it -

Active life is no defect;

Never, never break its spirit -

Curb it only to direct.

Would you dam the flowing river,

Thinking it would cease to flow?

Onward it must go forever -

Better teach it where to go.

Childhood is a fountain welling,

Trace its channel in the sand,

And its currents, spreading, swelling,

Will revive the withered land.

Childhood is the vernal season;

Trim and train the tender shoot;

Love is to the coming reason,

As the blossom to the fruit.

Tender twigs are bent and folded -

Art to nature beauty lends;

Childhood easily is moulded;

Manhood breaks, but seldom bends.

- David Bates