"Keep your raft from the riverboat,
Fiction over fact always has my vote.
And wrinkles only go where the smiles have been…"

--J. Buffett

Wise words from the Bard of Pascagoula. In the song "Barefoot Children," Jimmy Buffett speaks to the Tom & Huck inside all of us, of the joy gained from the simple pleasures of childhood: playing barefoot in the rain, days full of fun and mischief, and the existential peril of growing up too fast.

When Uncle Walt (as I euphemistically call him) stood in the middle of that orange grove in 1954, he understood better than most the need for a place where people could escape from the outside world; a place where the child inside could come out to play, and not be concerned about intrusion from the cares of everyday life. Having spent a large part of his childhood in Missouri, Walt was well versed in the writings of Mark Twain and is said to have read everything written by Twain he could get his hands on. Walt seemed to have a kinship with Twain, whose childhood had been similar to his own. The tales of Tom Sawyer's time spent on his raft and later on the island (after the raft had been destroyed by a riverboat) resonated with Walt in a profound way; the rafts to Tom Sawyer's Island and the might Mark Twain paddleboat stand as enduring testaments to the eternal childhood of Tom and Huck and the importance Walt placed on understanding and celebrating that part of each of us that is forever young.

The world in which we live has become increasingly complex, and I think it's taken a toll on our collective ability to enjoy the simpler things in life. I know that when the nightly news becomes a bit too much to bear, I can always reach for my beloved, dog-eared copy of The Unabridged Mark Twain. Even in Walt's time, life wasn't always as simple as we'd like to believe. America, and indeed the world, was experiencing monumental changes, and I think that's why Walt's vision grew from a simple play park for his employees and their families to the colossal undertaking that grew to become Disneyland. Walt just knew that people were going to be needing a safe haven from the rest of the world, where fiction takes the place of reality and all stories have a happy ending.

For most of us, growing older is inevitable. I've noticed my own touch of gray, and there are these amazing little lines that spread from the corners of my eyes when I smile. I wear the gray and the crow's feet as though they are badges of honor; prizes awarded for the miles I've traveled and experiences I've survived. And yet, when I walk through the tunnel into that most happiest of places I am always transformed, sent back to summer days that stretched as far as the horizon, limitless with possibilities.

Fortunately, we can all take a short raft trip across the mighty Rivers of America to the island that bears Tom Sawyer's name and in doing so, we can leave behind all our troubles, all our cares, all our worries, and spend some well-earned time just playing, like barefoot children. Because after all Disneyland, like Margaritaville and Twain's Missouri, is largely a state of mind.