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Diane the awesome cast member
Originally uploaded by Tavie

The woman in the hat is called Diane. I took the paparazzi shot on Sunday in Disneyland, down on the dock by N'awlins Square. I took a paparazzi shot because Mom and Steph were getting lost in the crowd, and I was too shy to ask her to pose for a photo. She might've found it funny.

Diane has been working for Disneyland for over 40 years. Kirsten and I ran into her on Tom Sawyer's Island. We had been scrambling around through the caves, which are much cooler than the caves in "our" Tom's Sawyer's Island in Orlando. I don't know if they've recently been overhauled, or if they've always had eerie skeletons and disappearing treasure in them, but they were pretty durn neat, even if they weren't called "Injun Joe's Caves" anymore.

My sister and I had somehow turned into 8-year-olds as we chased eachother around the island, squeezing through small apertures I could swear I was about sixteen times too big to maneuver mere minutes earlier. Mom finally had to call my cell phone and ask us to meet her and Steph at the dock to hitch a raft back to the mainland, else we'd miss our Fastpass window to ride the Indiana Jones ride (which is far, far too cool to miss.)

It wasn't so easy finding our way back, though. Disneyland's Magic Kingdom is the bizarro version of Walt Disney World's, and every time I thought I knew where I was going, I realized that I didn't have a clue. It's eerie, just different enough to befuddle me.

That's when we ran into Diane. 60-something, with bright blue eyes and beautiful cheekbones, she was wearing the garb of a Tom Sawyer Island castmember and appeared to be gathering up her gear to leave the vicinity. Kirsten trotted over and asked her where the docks were. She told us she was heading that way and she'd be glad to lead us.

As we walked, we talked. She told us that she was used to leading lost people back to their families, mainly grandpas who got confused by the winding trails and staircases on the little the island. We told her we'd been having too much fun to notice we'd lost our way.

"This is Disneyland as I always pictured it when I was a girl," she confided. "Running, jumping, climbing, always keeping up with the boys - I didn't want to do anything but climb trees and caves. This is my Disneyland."

I told her I agreed, that I had fond memories of the same adventures on Tom Sawyer's Island as a kid. It's true - I was no tomboy, no jock, but there was a time, oh-so-long ago, that I did my fair share of running-jumping-climbing-trees.

"I've worked here 40 years," she went on. Kirsten and I gasped.

"I'm one of only 12 or 13 out of 8,000 that's been working here that long."

"Wow, they should give you a party!"

"Oh, they do, every five years I get to sit down with the others and with Roy."

"You know Roy Disney?!"

"Oh yes, I've known him for years. I knew Walt, too."

At this point I was pretty sure this woman was my long-lost fairy godmother and that if I wasn't careful I would find myself trying to follow her home.

"When I was 8 years old, Walt had my whole life planned out for me. He said, 'Diane, when you're 17-and-a-half you're going to come work for me on my team, would you like that?' And I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world, I went right home and told my parents and they said, 'Whatever you say, Diane.' But here I am 40 years later and I just love it."

Now we were back at the dock. We thanked Diane and she twinkled her eyes at us and waved us onto the raft with Mom and Steph. Kirsten and I couldn't stop whispering to eachother. We were children, excited at the marvel we'd discovered.

When you've been to Disney parks as much as we have, it's these sorts of moments, unplanned, unplannable, "magic", that differentiate each trip for us. This one is a treasure I want to keep forever. If there was a pin of it, I'd buy a lanyard and make it my crown jewel.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 12:43 AM | shower me with attention