Letters to the editor
November 25, 1997
Wild about Mr. Toad
I AM a frequent visitor to your area, the unique and wonderful Orlando. I
am quite upset to hear that Disney may upset Toad to put in Pooh. Bother!
I say OK to Pooh, but leave Toad going "merrily on his way" as he always
has.
Seems to me as if the Disney people are going "nowhere in particular"
with this one. If I may quote Walt: "Here in Florida, we have something
special we never enjoyed at Disneyland: the blessing of size. There's enough
land here to hold all the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine."
Enough said.
Brad Grant
SAN FRANCISCO
Time to panic
SEVERAL WEEKS ago we received a frantic message on our answering machine
to call our son who is currently attending the University of Central
Florida. Immediately the "parent panic" caught hold of my husband and me
as we fumbled through the numbers on our phone, anticipating the gruesome
possibilities of illness, accidents or test failures.
When we finally heard his voice, its tone foreshadowed that his news was
of epic proportions. "What's the matter? Are you all right?" And then came
his horrible response.
"They're going to close Mr. Toad."
Certainly this was worse than we possibly could have imagined. The Magic
Kingdom -- to which we had made a yearly pilgrimage (all right, maybe
tri-annually) -- was actually considering removing an important source of
sustenance for our son. After he paid for tuition, board and books, his
next purchase was his Florida-resident, all-year Disney pass. It preceded
food, even pizza.
I recall hundreds of serpentine rides through Toad Hall, the three of us
crammed into one of the crazy toadmobiles with our son actually thinking
he was driving. Often, years later, in the passenger seat of his real car,
I would experience those fleeting moments of deja vu, longing to return to
the safety of Toad Hall and the repetitious strains of "Merrily, merrily,
merrily ... ."
It would be a shame if all the future 20-year-olds and their parents are
deprived of such memories. If there is room for Twilight Tower of Terror
and the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, another place should be made
for akinder, gentler ride featuring a big orange bear. However, don't
replace a ride that is perfect for younger and, as it turns out, older
children.
Mr. Toad deserves a better fate than to be a victim of a Pooh-per scooper.
Sandy Melillo
FORT LAUDERDALE
All content ©1997 Orlando Sentinel. Republished with permission.