My Disney Side: My Own Wonder Years

Disney on Dialysis

Stephen Wimer spends most of the day hooked up to a dialysis machine, his blood slowly pumped out and cleansed before being slowly pumped back in. He thinks often of Disneyland. He was there on the first day, in 1955. That's where his Disney story begins.

Until you meet Stephen Wimer, formerly a surfer, formerly a school teacher, always a self-proclaimed Disney geek, you'd never equate Disneyland with a medical process as dehumanizing as kidney dialysis.

But for Wimer, as for many others, Disneyland performs the same function: it cleanses our impurities and dissatisfactions, returning our lives to us at the end of the day infused with that peculiar "pixie dust", Walt's special recipe, found only in the happiest place on earth.

Wimer's story starts on a swing in his suburban California backyard, one day in 1955, when his father, a reporter for a local paper, scoops him up and takes him to Disneyland, on opening day, where he's the first kid in Fantasyland. His life takes many twists and turns, including substance abuse, frittered opportunities, and spiritual rebirth, but Disneyland figures through it all.

You have never read a Disney tale like this one.