HIDDEN MICKEY ADVENTURES 3

by Nancy Temple Rodrigue

  Catie gave a little gasp and looked quickly toward the house to see if her grandparents were anywhere near. “Alex! Shh! Grandma Margaret and Papa might hear you! We all agreed not to say anything until we knew exactly what it is that we found.”

  “Nothing yet?”

  Peter and Catie just shook their heads. They were frustrated by their lack of progress. There had been no record or pictures of any red-haired mermaid at Disneyland except Ariel—and they were pretty sure she wasn’t what they needed. Peter hadn’t told anyone else, but he was sure he had been followed through Tomorrowland by that woman from the Haunted Mansion. He had turned quickly to catch her, but she had melted into the shadows and he never saw her again. His gut told him that hadn’t been the first—or last—time that had happened.

  “Why the long faces? It’s too nice a day for that.”

  The three young faces in question jerked toward the intruding voice. John Michaels chuckled to himself at their expression. His son Adam used to look just like that when he was caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing. The twins perfectly mirrored their father. Lifeis never boring with kids. John almost asked what they were up to just to see what they might actually tell him. Nah, I’ll let them off the hook. “Your grandmother has lunch ready. Come on in. And wipe your feet dry!”

  Margaret was setting a pitcher of iced tea on the kitchen table when they all silently trooped into the house. Noticing their serious demeanor, she threw a questioning look at her husband. His shrug told her he knew nothing. “I made a nice tofu salad.” That did the trick.

  Disgust evident on their faces, they all stared at her in disbelief, each obviously struggling to remain polite.

  “Just kidding. We’re having pizza.”

  The rapid recovery of youth took over and the talk during lunch became more animated as the pizza rapidly disappeared.

  Between bites, John got a big smile on his face. “Say, did I ever tell you kids about the time I got caught sneaking into Disneyland?”

  There was a united, unenthused drone of, “Yes.”

  “Oh, guess I told you that already.”

  “Grandma, speaking of Disneyland….”

  There was a mumble from John across the table. “I was trying to speak about Disneyland….”

  Alex continued as if he hadn’t heard. “Is it okay if we show Peter the stuff you have stored in the attic? I don’t think he’s seen some of those ancient things before.”

  Margaret glanced out of the corner of her eye at John when he tried to cover his laugh with a cough. He knew she didn’t like her cherished mementoes being referred to as ‘ancient.’ “They aren’t that old, honey.”

  “Gosh, Grandma, they’re like from the Dark Ages! I mean, they’re so old they don’t even make....”

  Margaret cut him off before he could say any more. “Fine. Sure. Go ahead. Just don’t break anything.”

  The three remembered to thank her for lunch before they rushed off to the garage.

  “Ancient.” Margaret was still muttering as John wisely kept silent while they cleared the table of the paper plates and cups.

  “Gosh, Alex, you have a death wish?”

  “What did I do?”

  The older Peter had seen Margaret’s reaction to Alex’s choice of words. “You just called your grandmother ancient. Old people don’t like that.”

  Alex pulled another box down from the shelving his grandfather had built into the attic walls. “She is ancient. Hey, look at this!”

  A tin tray was pulled out of the large box and any possible insult to Margaret was forgotten. About seventeen inches wide and twelve inches tall, the rusty tin had a very early rendering of Disneyland. The dominant color was green from all the plants and grass throughout the sparsely-filled park. The top and bottom rim of the tray was a light gold painted with familiar-looking trains. There was a large gold-colored circus tent on the right side behind Main Street.

  “Wow, that’s pretty cool! There’s no Matterhorn and that looks like a boat ride in Tomorrowland. What does it say at the bottom?” Peter brought it closer to his face to see the faint date. “It says 1954. That’s a year before it opened. Maybe that’s why some of the rides are wrong. What else is in there?”

  While the boys amused themselves with the Disneyland memorabilia, Catie quietly wandered over to a different part of the spacious attic to see something she knew the boys wouldn’t care about. With care she opened the large cedar chest—the one her grandmother had called her Hope Chest—and peered inside.

  Yards and yards of white lace and tulle were right where Catie expected them to be. After wiping her fingers off on her shorts, she reverentially lifted the pearl-encrusted Juliet cap and, after a glance at the boys, set it aside rather than trying it on as she usually did. With a sigh full of youthful hopes and dreams, she lifted the beaded wedding dress. If the boys hadn’t been there she would have held it up in front of her and twirled in front of the oval beveled mirror next to the chest. A pair of white satin shoes rested next to the embossed cover of Margaret and John’s wedding album.

  Those cherished items were usually enough to keep Catie enthralled for hours, but now she couldn’t indulge in her fantasies. With another sideways glance to see where Peter and Alex were, she set aside the album and looked deeper into the chest. She had seen the boxes on the bottom of the chest before, usually when she was setting everything back in its proper place. Now she had time to explore. The first box held a crumbly assortment of dried flowers and frayed ribbons from old corsages. Afraid to touch anything lest it should completely fall to pieces, Catie hastily put the lid back and moved to the next box marked Memories.

  This box held an assortment of ticket stubs to movie theaters and concerts, Disneyland entry tickets, a small gray canister, some jewelry, a large plastic harp of some kind, and a lot of pictures. Catie took out the gold harp and set it aside when she found it didn’t actually make any music. After glancing through the movie stubs and not recognizing any of the titles, she turned to the pictures. Assuming the young woman in most of the pictures was her grandmother, she did wonder about all the different men who were in the pictures. “Grandma Margaret was really pretty. And popular.” Catie had a smile on her face as she continued to look through the photos, some creased and a few ripped. Her smile froze when she came across one certain picture. Her grandmother was resting alongside a pool with five other girls, all smiling for the camera.

  “Peter! Alex! You have to see this! It’s Grandma at a pool!”

  The boys screwed up their faces. “We really don’t want to see a picture of Grandma in a swim suit. I mean, really don’t want to see that.”

  “Alex, you have to see this.”

  At her insistent voice and seeing that she wasn’t going to bring it to them, Alex and Peter reluctantly dragged themselves over to her location. After rolling their eyes at seeing the wedding dress, they resigned themselves to whatever they were about to witness. “Okay, but you’re probably going to scar us for life. What is it?”

  Catie didn’t respond to the sarcasm. She pointed at the brunette in the picture. “That’s Grandma!”

  Peter’s face was the first to register the surprise. “She’s a mermaid. Look at the tail. They’re all wearing tails! What is this?”

  Alex grabbed the photograph from his sister’s hand. “Grandma’s a mermaid?”

  Catie reached behind her and picked up the harp. “One of the other girls is holding this. See? Hey, what does it say on the back of that picture? I see some writing.”

  Alex turned the photograph over. “1965—Disneyland Hotel.” He lowered the picture and looked at Peter and Catie. “There were mermaids at the Hotel? I never heard of that.”

  “It said 1965. Was there even a Hotel way back then?” Catie didn’t know quite as much of Disneyland’s history as her friend Peter did and directed her question to him.

  Peter just barely heard her. His mind had gone back to the mermaid they had found inside the H
aunted Mansion and wondered if there could possibly be a connection. When he realized the twins waited for an answer, he pulled his eyes from the photo. “Yeah, the Disneyland Hotel was there way before that. Do you think we can ask your grandmother about this? If that is her, she might know something that could help us.”

  Alex looked at all the wedding finery that his sister had pulled out of the chest. “Hey, were you even supposed to be in there? Grandma might not want you poking around in her stuff like that.”

  The boys were baffled when Catie blushed a bright pink and turned away to put the lovely dress and the other things carefully back in the wooden box. Her voice was so low they almost couldn’t hear her. “She knows.”

  They chose to ignore the girl’s embarrassment. “Then, let’s go ask. Do you want to bring that gold plastic thing, too?”

  Margaret was found relaxing on the back patio as she enjoyed the late afternoon breeze. Her former pique had been replaced by her sense of humor. “So, did you guys find anything interesting in all my ancient things?”

  She had a moment of confusion when the plastic harp was thrust in front of her face. The look was quickly replaced by one of happy recognition. “My lyre!”

  “Liar?” Alex wasn’t sure who she was referring to. “Me? I didn’t say anything!”

  Margaret gave her grandson a fond smile. “Oh, no, honey. Not liar. Lyre.” She spelled out the word and held up the curved plastic. “It’s an ancient,” she stressed with a half smile, “musical instrument. Like a harp. Gosh, haven’t seen this in years. What else did you find?”

  She took the picture from Catie’s hand. “Oh, it’s the girls! My, haven’t thought about them in so long. That’s Betsy and Mary and Omah and…. Hmm, can’t remember these other girls’ names. Oh, we had so much fun playing the mermaids. Lots of training and that chlorine in the water…. Almost ruined my hair….”

  “That really is you.”

  Margaret pulled back from her memories. She had forgotten the three kids were still standing there staring at her. “I never told you about the mermaids in the Submarine Lagoon? Really? How in the world could I have forgotten that?”

  After Peter’s warning to Alex in the attic, they really didn’t want to say anything about memory loss in old people. They wisely decided to remain quiet and just shrugged their shoulders.

  Margaret took their silence as acceptance. “Well, sit down and I’ll tell you the story of the Mermaids of Disneyland.”

  Flashback — Disneyland — 1959

  “Say, Walt, how do you think the re-opening of Tomorrowland went?”

  Walt Disney looked up from the small black notebook he had pulled out of his pocket. Protected from the summer sun by a large red and white striped canopy, he sat in a quiet corner of the Carnation Plaza Gardens. All the festivities of the day had tired him and Walt knew he only had a couple of hours before the Disneyland Band was scheduled to perform on the Gardens bandstand. With a slight smile on his face, he swallowed his tired sigh. Maybe I should have just gone to my apartment. “Hey, Joe. Well, I think June 14th will be marked as an important date in Disneyland’s history, don’t you?”

  Taking the smile as a good sign, Joe pulled out one of the white wire chairs and sat. After a curious glance at the little black book that Walt quickly put back in his pocket, Joe fanned his face with his hat. “Yeah, I think so, too. The Matterhorn looks great, the Monorail didn’t catch on fire when Mr. Nixon rode it, and none of the mermaids drowned in the Lagoon! Yeah, it was a good day!”

  Walt chuckled at the concise description of what was the grand conclusion of an expansion that had cost over seven and a half million dollars and was televised to over ninety million viewers. “I haven’t seen her to ask, but did Harriet ever find that mermaid statue that was stolen?”

  “No. Pretty lousy timing, too, if you ask me. She was pretty upset no one got to see it before the re-opening.”

  The boss looked over toward the entrance of Tomorrowland and the prominent House of the Future. Just beyond the unique plastic house was the Avenue of the Flags and a steadily moving mass of guests. He knew there were huge lines at the three new attractions. His new Tomorrowland was already deemed a success. “The live mermaids were a good idea. I heard they were a big hit in the parade down Main Street, too.”

  Joe nodded. He had worried that it would turn into an ugly shoving match when the girls began to toss strands of pearls from the treasure chest on their float. But, everyone behaved themselves. “Half the girls were on the float with King Triton and the other half were in the Lagoon, as you saw. The ballet went well?”

  Walt looked confused for a moment. “Ballet? Oh, you mean the swimming the girls were doing. Yeah, they did well. I pulled a couple of them aside before they got all wet to have their picture taken with Nixon. One of them had no idea who he was!”

  When Joe complained about the June heat, Walt sent him back to Tomorrowland to get a couple of drinks from the Yacht Bar. With a secret smile, Walt knew he probably had just bought himself another hour before Joe would make it back. That part of the Park was packed.

  His reprieve, however, was short-lived. One of the security guards silently appeared next to Walt’s chair. Feeling the man’s presence rather than actually hearing him, Walt glanced up at the dark face beside him. “Hello, Wolf. Thought I’d see you today. Have a seat.”

  Wolf’s sharp blue eyes continued to scan the Park as he declined the offer with a shake of his head. “Just wanted to see if you needed anything. You all right?”

  “Just a little tired, but, then, we all are.”

  Wolf nodded his agreement and remained characteristically quiet.

  Walt wanted to see if he could push one of Wolf’s few buttons. “So, tell me. What do you think of the new mermaids?”

  A small smile came and went over Wolf’s handsome face. “I think you made a good decision to include them in the Lagoon.”

  Walt gave a chuckle. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know.”

  His boss’s head slowly shook side to side. “You’re one of a kind, Wolf. Have a seat. I’d like you to tell me about the girls’ tryouts over at the Disneyland Hotel. I’ve heard various renditions and I’d like to hear yours.”

  Wolf knew it wasn’t a request and reluctantly sat on the red and white striped seat. “How did you know I was there?”

  Walt just gave him a wide smile.

  “Well, you knew that over three hundred girls showed up after that newspaper ad came out.”

  At Walt’s brief nod, Wolf continued. “They were all lined up in rows and, if they were tapped on the shoulder, they were dismissed. It took a couple of hours for the number to get down to fifty.” Wolf gave another smile. “Yes, they were all very pretty, all of them had long hair, and none were over twenty-five years old. One of the girls did have a fake ponytail that came off when it was tugged. She didn’t even wait for the tap on her shoulder and left in tears.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “The instructors made sure all of them could swim and then tied their arms together above their heads. Another soft cloth was used to bind their legs at the knees and ankles. They were dropped in the water at the deep end and had to make it to the shallow end, swimming like a dolphin. A few of them panicked and had to be helped out of the water.” At Walt’s pointed look, he added, “No, I wasn’t one of the rescuers. One of the girls who made it to the finals actually sank like a rock at first and scraped her stomach on the bottom of the pool. I think the instructors were impressed by her determination and how long she could hold her breath.”

  “So, the final eight were chosen out of the bunch that made it to the shallow end alive.”

  “Yeah, something like that. They were pretty excited to hear they would be making $45 a week and only two girls would work at a time in one hour shifts during the day.”

  Walt nodded. “Well, the minimum wage is one dollar an hour. I didn’t feel that was right considering how hard they wo
uld have to train in water ballet and synchronized swimming for weeks before the Lagoon opened.”

  “They didn’t bat an eye when they found out the water in the Lagoon was only fifty degrees. They were all just happy to have been selected.”

  Walt gave a snort. “Do you know how expensive it would be to heat that Lagoon? It has nine million gallons of water! I figured that large flat rock out in the middle would get warm enough from the sun and then there’s the heat from the submarines, too. That rubber fin weighs, what, three pounds? That should help keep their legs warm.”

  “Well, I’m assigned to be there when their first shift is over. To make sure they all get backstage all right.” He paused, but didn’t receive the crack he had expected to hear. “I’ll see how they’re doing and report back if there are any problems.”

  The anticipated broad smile now broke out on Walt’s face. “Oh, I’m sure you will. How many fellas did you have to beat out to get that privilege?”

  Wolf didn’t take the bait. He stood from his chair and gave his boss and friend a look completely devoid of expression. “Eight. Anything else you need, Walt?”

  “No, I’m good, Wolf. Thanks! Joe’ll be back soon with a couple of drinks. See you around.” After Wolf melted back into the shadows of the Castle, Walt was still chuckling as he pulled the notebook out of his pocket and wrote Mermaids on the top of a blank page.

  Yorba Linda

  “So, when I saw the ad in the paper in 1965 that said Disneyland was bringing back the mermaids for the Park’s tenth anniversary, I just had to try out.”