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Showing posts from July, 2015

What It Was Like to Grow Up Right Next to Disneyland

I grew up in Anaheim, California.  We lived in three different places during my childhood but all within a couple miles of Disneyland.  When we first moved there, I could literally throw a baseball onto the hotel property.  I went to the three schools closest to Disneyland-- Palm Lane, Ball Jr. High and Loara High School. Of course, as a kid you don't always realize the significance of things.  I didn't know that I was growing up in a really great place because I didn't know any different.  We would go to the beach once a week in the summer, we would play "ditch" in the summer in our neighborhood and then watch the Disneyland fireworks at 9 pm and afterwards we knew it was time to go home.       I have often been asked, "Wow, if you grew up next to Disneyland, then you probably went all the time?"  No, not really.  Disneyland was (and even more now) expensive and I grew up in a broken home.  I probably went as often as any other kid in southern Cali