Dispatch From Disneyland
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As they walked out toward Town Square to position one, Joe explained that tonight’s ceremony was a very special one. The 101st Airborne division was holding their reunion at the Disneyland Hotel and they were having a special event in the park tonight, so Town Square would be packed with veterans, every last one of them keeping a keen eye on the Flag and the ceremony.
That was still in the day when the Disneyland Marching Band provided the music for the ceremony. At the proper moment in the music Joe tapped Chap and David, the third member of the Flag Retreat detail, on the shoulder and they took their position outside the Bank of Main Street.
Chap remembered every detail of the ceremony. Although he barely took his eyes off the flag, he caught the depth of emotion those veterans felt looking at the flag. He could feel every pair of eyes staring at him. Although the Flag was just cloth run up a pole, to these men it was a symbol of what they had fought, died, and triumphed for.
Once backstage, he nearly collapsed, both from nervous exhaustion and from the feeling he got from all those soldiers and heroes around him. He certainly felt a new respect for the Flag and what it meant.
Chap never forgot that day. He carried with him the respect for the Flag ceremony at every ceremony he performed from that day forward. He liked to think he passed that respect on to other cast members who he trained after Joe retired.
Today would be his 3000th ceremony. The boys backstage had all signed a card with congratulatory thoughts on it. Mostly he just felt old and was looking forward to retirement in a few years. Still the ceremony demanded dignity and respect and he would be proud to serve on the Flag retreat detail another thousand times if they asked him.
• • •
Andrew smiled as the high school band from Omaha, at least that’s what he thought he heard, marched down Main Street. Those fresh high school faces, how many of them had already visited their recruiters and joined up in defense of their country.
Two years ago he had done just that. If he had known at the time that his kid would be born while he was stationed overseas, and that he would have been involved in heavy combat on the ground in a distant land, he might have had second thoughts.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t have been proud to defend his country from terrorist attacks, nor would he want to not have his boy. He loved junior and his wife very much. It’s just that being away from them, from his home and family, was so difficult.
He resolved again to forget all that and enjoy this day at Disneyland.
Andrew looked down at his son, who was jumping up and down and clapping as the band marched on, and thought about the days when he would be at Disneyland with his grandchildren. What band would be marching that day? Would he and his wife be sitting on Main Street listening to ragtime? It made him terribly happy to think that it would probably happen. It was certainly worth fighting for.
Discuss It
-- Indigo
Dispatch from Disneyland: Memories and fantasies woven together to create whimsical tales that can happen any day at Walt Disney's magic kingdom. Through Indigo's dispatch you can experience some of the wonderful moments that make Disneyland such a magical place.
Dispatch from Disneyland is posted on the first Wednesday of each month.
The opinions expressed by our Indigo, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future plans of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted March 6, 2002