True story

We went to Disney World when Wireless was a child. Disney is a cultural touchstone, a winter vacation that seemed like something that reasonably responsible parents would do. Besides, it was winter and who doesn't want to go to Florida in the middle of a Minnesota winter? We went.

We stayed at a Disney Hotel on the grounds of Disney World. We got the Disney pass for the theme parks and the Disney transportation pass for the Disney buses.

Our usual routine was to leave the hotel early in the morning with the intention of arriving at the Magic Kingdom at the hour of opening. This allowed us to enter the park well before most of the crowd. We were first in line for the attractions, avoiding the Disney lines.

By about noon crowds started to amass. At that point, instead of fighting the crush of bodies we would use our transportation pass and retreat to the Disney hotel for a Disney nap and associated recreational opportunities in the vicinity of the Disney hotel.

The drawback of this approach is that Disney scheduled some of the premier events at hours which found us not at the Kingdom. One example of a premier event at Magic Kingdom was the candle light parade. The candle light parade was a shortly after dark parade of all of the big Disney characters down the main streets of the Magic Kingdom. Lots of flashlights and spotlights, marching bands, it looked, all in all, like it might be a pretty good time. Eventually we succumbed to the temptation. After having dinner at the Disney hotel we took Disney transportation back to the Kingdom, and remember that we had Disney passes so we did not have to pay another admission, we re-entered the Kingdom for the big evening twilight parade.

The parade was various Disney characters on dimly lit floats. We stood next to the parade route and pretty much enjoyed the show.

However, as luck would have it . . .

As the parade was passing us there was one of those parade delays which occurs in every parade. The parade stopped and the characters had to interact with the audience in the area of the parade where they were stopped. The Disney character stopped in front of us was Alice in Wonderland.

At this point you should click the video to start the music.
So there in front of me was Alice, ten feet tall.

I asked her.

"Alice", I shouted up at her. And "Alice", I shouted again.

From ten feet above me she noticed and turned towards me and asked, "Yes, what is it?"

And I said,

"Alice, one pill makes you larger.
And one pill makes you small.
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all."

And Alice responded to me, as she had to, it was a parade.

She said, "Well, boys and girls, I have no idea what he is talking about. Do you?" Just then the parade started to move again and our little moment was over.

True story.