Missouri day 2

September 16

Razelle and I awoke to find that we were the only ones home. Everyone else had gone to their places of work and Lilly was with a caregiver. Shortly after we discovered this, however, Sara and Andy returned to do some laundry and then they left again. Razelle then took her turn to do our laundry. Then we took off for Marceline, MO, to be there for Sara and Andy's premiere showing of their documentary about the town where Walt Disney had spent an important part of his childhood. Knowing that I would be driving there in daylight and returning after dark, I chose to take narrower scenic rural roads there and wider more heavily traveled roads back.

This day was cool and rainy; the heavy sky was pewter gray. We drove through a rain that often changed in intensity and I changed the setting of the intermittent sweep of my wipers just as often to match it. We flushed out the occasional insect from among corn fields we passed in this rural setting and they haplessly splattered on our windshield whenever our paths crossed. One particularly greasy insect left a splotch on my windshield that no amount of rain or wiper fluid could rinse off; instead, its remains left an arched smear that framed the scenery in a most distracting way. When we stopped in Keytesville, MO for gas, I manually removed this greasy residue with a paper towel. The convenience store here had no tuna sandwiches; it was thus an inconvenience store from Razelle's perspective. Rural Missouri in the rain with rollercoaster hills and cornfield vistas did not appeal to Razelle very much.

The water tower with "MARCELINE" spelled across it finally came into view and as it did the rain slowed to a fine drizzle. We followed Sara's directions to the Marceline Train Station, which is now the Walt Disney Hometown Museum, and went inside. True to our pattern, we arrived close enough to closing time to be the only ones there. We met a pair of ladies who were in charge of the museum and introduced ourselves as relatives of Sara. Everyone in Marceline knows Sara and Andy, and this made us special by association, more so than our status as round-the-world travelers who had included Marceline in our itinerary. One of these ladies personally guided us around the exhibits. We could have read the explanations ourselves, but she made it all the more significant by describing each exhibit and allowing us to see the importance of each item through her own eyes. We were introduced to Inez. The home that Walt Disney had lived in for five years as a child, as I understand it, is now where Inez's daughter Kaye lives. A photo of Kaye as a beauty contest winner in one of the exhibits caught my eye, so a meeting with Kaye today, if possible, intrigued me. Razelle chatted with Inez and the other two museum staff while I viewed an exhibit upstairs. A planning meeting of important people began in a side room up there and I was introduced to Kaye before it began. I was in the presence of greatness; I knew this in an instant, and I was buoyed by Kaye's charm. Rejoining Razelle and her appreciative audience, who had gotten to hear of our many exploits by now, I was asked to give them "the tour" of our van. Before I was able to turn on the mood lights behind the ceiling mirror, however, the rain started up again, putting their hairdos in peril, so they retreated to the shelter of the museum and missed seeing that feature.

We were in Marceline, MO because Sara and Andy had invited every one of their friends and relatives to attend the Premiere Screening of their documentary film about this town. All throughout our travels in the United States – back and forth across time zones, up and down through lines of latitude – I hadn't imagined we'd be able to time our visit to Missouri precisely enough to commit to taking Sara up on her invitation. The closer the date and the closer we were geographically, the more I saw that this could, and in fact, must be done.

The event was still a few hours away and we had time to see more of Marceline. Razelle was not feeling up to "meandering in Marceline," so I explored the town on my own. About 2000 residents call Marceline home today, more or less equal to the number of people who had lived here when the Disney family resided here. Its main street (called Kansas Avenue) was THE model for Walt Disney's "Main Street USA" in Disneyland. It truly is a preserved part of the "heartland" of America.

I learned at the museum that of the five Disney brothers, the two oldest found nothing to hold them here and they quickly left. Walt and Roy, on the other hand, thrived in this small-town environment and it formed their character. I had lived in a few places around this country myself as a child (in Ohio, Indiana and Florida) and I recalled how my memories of those places had affected me. I entirely understood how Walt Disney could fixate on memories associated with the place he lived at just the right age to have them become part of the core of his being. I imagine this happens to everyone who has lived in one place as a child and another place as an adult. I walked along the main street of Marceline with a photographer's eye and a biographer's mind and found significance with each footfall.

At the Uptown Theatre I met the proprietor, a cheerful woman who we'd also met at the museum earlier. This is the theater where Andy and Sara's movie was to be screened later that evening. A poster was on display in the "coming attractions" window announcing this momentous and historic event. Across the street I found a forgotten cell phone on a bench. I brought this to her. In Marceline I imagine it would have remained on that bench until its owner came back for it. Where I live it would have had a new owner in no time. She was effusively grateful that I had brought it to her. 

I found almost none of the eateries open after 3 PM. Razelle wanted to eat somewhere. She was given the name of an eatery called Tall Paul in the town of Bucklin, eight miles away, but I wanted to make sure that we couldn't find something acceptable in Marceline before we went farther afield. I found an ice-cream parlor open where homemade ice-cream was made and sold. The husband-and-wife owners wanted to attend the premiere, but couldn't make it because they would be closing their business at that hour. I described Andy as being my nephew-in-law, a term they thought was a humorous way of putting it. (After the premiere, someone tapped me on the shoulder in the theatre lobby; he said with a grin that he'd come to buy my "nephew-in-law's" DVD.)



There was only one eatery open that served meals; a Mexican restaurant. I went back to Razelle in the van, prepared to make the trip to Bucklin after quickly showing Razelle what "beautiful downtown Marceline" looked like.

We parked the van in front of the Uptown Theater and Razelle went to the restaurant to study its menu. She proclaimed it good, and we left the van where it was. This was our first Mexican restaurant of the entire trip. The food was really good and we wondered why we hadn't thought to eat in one of these before. I had vegetarian refried bean dip with taco chips and nacho cheese. I had fun trying out the different hot sauces they had on the table. We left there quite full. I looked around and noticed that every single male patron in the place sat indoors at their respective tables wearing a baseball cap. This was my kind of place! These were my kind of guys! Gotta love the Midwest, man! This explains why I felt so at home in Marceline, while Razelle was like a fish out of water here.

We returned to the van to rest until the crowd gathered. We had the best parking spot in town! As we tried to nap we were serenaded by a loudspeaker at the next street corner that played an interesting upbeat medley of patriotic and popular muzak-style songs. About 20 minutes before show time we went into the theater and settled into some seats. The interior was decorated just the way it had been when Walt Disney's first premiere showing of "The Great Locomotive Chase" was screened here in 1956. Andy and Sara's premiere had the distinction of being only the third premiere in this theater's illustrious history (Disney had the first two), and I hope they have the same measure of success in their career as he had.

Razelle sent me to the lobby for popcorn. We were introduced to Jan's sister and niece, who sat in the row behind us, as Sara's aunt and uncle from Israel. Then the lights were dimmed and Andy introduced himself and the film we were about to view.

I must say that the film was extremely well done. I was very impressed with Andy's camera work, with the choice of background music, with Sara's editing to distill so many interviews of the town's people into such a coherent, flowing and entertaining work of art. I had been to the museum, toured the town and met a number of key people in the few hours we were in Marceline. Andy and Sara captured their essences so well that I felt he and she were introducing my town and my friends to the world with this film. Disney had had a profound impact on the lives of these people, just as they had had on him. Andy and Sara captured this mutually beneficial symbiosis and synergy very deftly with their cinematic skills. I am convinced that I was a witness tonight to the humble beginning of what has the potential to be an illustrious career for these two. They must persevere, of course, and promote themselves at every opportunity, but what I saw this evening has me convinced that they belong in the big leagues in this industry, after they pay their dues.

At the end of the film the lights went up and a question and answer session began. From the answers it became subtly clear that Kaye was an invisible force behind this premiere. Kaye is the greatest asset this town possesses. She has worked hard to promote Marceline and keep it on the map. She spoke briefly after Andy and Sara finished answering questions and made a point to announce to the audience that Razelle and I had come all the way from Israel to support Sara and Andy by attending their premiere. We were the only family members Sara had in the audience and we were proud to represent her entire family in wishing her success and in helping her launch her career.

We drove back to Columbia in the dark while the rest of the people involved went to the after-party at the Mexican restaurant. I drove the van along far-superior roads through larger towns than I had come through and the dazzling headlights were my only real hardship. I'm beginning to think this is a manifestation of my age and not of poorly aimed beams. I may have to resign myself to accepting my own limitations concerning night driving. We arrived just ahead of Jan and Marvin, who had collected a sleeping Lilly on their way home. It was already after midnight and all of us were tired so we all went to sleep and deferred discussing the premiere until the following morning.