Read The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth for Free Online

“cakey-pudding” (molten chocolate cake) and blonde brownies.
    Every weekend we piled into the family car for trips t o one of the local movies houses or Sunday drives after church.  We drove along the rivers and through the woods and tobacco and corn fields of rural Massachusetts.  Air conditioning was a rolled-down window.
    Every summer we took trips around New England.  We stayed at the Howard Johnson in Hyannisport, on the western end of Cape Cod, and we stayed on the Cape’s tip, at Wellfleet, in a little beach cottage called Bonnie Dune.
    We spent time in the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  We were lucky to glimpse the “Old Man of The Mountain” granite face back in the 1970’s, long before it disintegrated and slid down the mountain in an avalanche.  Now you can only see the noble profile of the “Old Man” on the reverse of the New Hampshire quarter.
    We explored the Flume Gorge and the Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves, where we almost lost our little sister to what seemed like a bottomless pit in the vicinity of the pitch-black Lemon Squeeze cavern.
    Once we even drove north, all the way up into Quѐbec and Montreal in eastern Canada.  In Quebec we strolled the narrow little old-world alley where plein air artists paint at their easels, and visited the Citadel, that grand old fortress on Cap Diamant.  I remember being wowed by what in retrospect was a pretty primitive diorama; when you pushed different buttons, areas of the city lit up with gun and cannon fire and a narrator explained a historic battle.
    Every August we’d celebrate my birthday with a visit to Riverside Park (now a Six Flags park) in Agawam, MA, where our favorites included the Fun House–a genuine, old-fashioned, walk-through fun house with sliding and undulating floors, startling air jets and a rolling barrel–Laff-in-the-Dark, the Wildcat roller coaster, the Spider, and the Rotor.
    Ed Carroll Sr. and his son Ed Carroll Jr. were the visionaries who owned and helmed Riverside Park, growing it from the 1940’s through the 1990’s while keeping it family friendly and fun.  Carroll Sr. found Disneyland inspirational, and introduced rides such as a Monorail and Jungle Cruise to Riverside Park, modeling them on the original Disneyland attractions.
    Riverside Park was sold to Premier Parks in 1998, the same year Premier Parks acquired Six Flags.  Many of Riverside’s charming rides are gone now, replaced largely by thrill coasters as tall as the Himalayas and as sprawling as L.A., along with other thrill rides and a water park .  The good news?  The Scrambler, Tea Cups and 1909 Carousel survived.
    When I was eight, our family took a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando , Florida, and around that time we also visited Hershey Park and Amish country in Pennsylvania.  Hershey Park was delightful, but Walt Disney World won, hands down.  I couldn’t have put it into words then, but in retrospect I understand it; Hershey Park was colorful fun, but Walt Disney World was magic .
     
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    For generations during the last century, Disney entertainment has captured the hearts of children around the world.  My siblings and I were no different.
    I was three years old when I first saw a re-release of Disney ’s 1959 animated feature Sleeping Beauty at the Army cinema in Darmstadt, Germany.  Dad took me and my little brother to see the prince battle the dragon and wake the sleeping princess.  My brother and I were terrified by villainess Maleficent , but riveted by the film’s lush colors and music and its comical and heroic themes.
    Like most children then and today, our lives were saturated by Disney .  There were no videos or DVDs in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but Dad took us frequently to see new and re-released Disney movies.  We had Peter Pan records to play over and over on our kiddie turntable.  A favorite record was Walt Disney Presents The Story of Hansel and