Escape From the Bronx

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We could not get out of the Bronx. 

Our little family had made plans to fly to Florida and escape the shiver-me-timbers weather that froze our feet into blocks of ice whenever we stepped outside and made the salted roads as dense and hard as quantum theory.

Nature defeated us. The high winds on Saturday the 14th caused our airline to cancel our flight. 

We quickly rescheduled for the next day.  My two companions and I wore multiple layers of clothing under thick winter jackets onto the plane. We walked off the plane at Palm Beach International Airport into a night temperature of about 70 degrees. Ah, relief.

Our jackets and sweatshirts came off, as well as the accumulated tensions of New York.

For about eight months of the year, Florida is a state that wouldn’t be possible without air conditioning. In the summer, it feels as if the sun is sand-blasting your skin. But in the winter, the air is delicious. We swam in the pool at my mother’s condominium, the sun slicing the water into little diamonds.  We dipped our feet into clear blue ocean water at the beach.  

Then we drove north to Orlando and the weather changed. My family and I walked around Disney World in winter coats. Despite the cold, there is something I discovered for myself about Disney World.  

Everybody is nice, even Donald Duck. 

People wearing Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers sweatshirts were walking around under the cold sun with their small children. There were many guys wearing sweat shirts announcing their colleges, including me. Alabama, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Louisiana State, Florida and Florida State were well-represented in the crowds. 

The Disney people are paid to be nice, of course, but the guests are super-polite too.  Despite all the turmoil we see in the media, Disney World appears to be a small neutral zone of courtesy.  People you don’t know say hello to you. They make sure they’re not cutting other people in line. 

They’ll strike up a conversation in line with people they’ve never met. They will help a child find a lost toy.  

I must confess I didn’t want to go to Disney World.  I was forced to go by the senior among my companions. In my mind, Disney World was just a giant marketing machine that feeds people quick and satisfying fantasies, including how English maids make cleaning your room fun, mermaids sing well, clownfish Dads are neurotic messes and you can drink all the chocolate milk you want and not gain weight. Plus, a giant mouse with a squeaky voice can defeat evil by thinking nice thoughts.

But, once I was there, I saw that Florida and even the corporate fantasy machine called Disney offered our family a break from the cold realities of New York, even it was just temporary. 

We got back to New York a week later and it started to snow.  A new blast of cold air is about to hit us. But baseball spring training in Florida has started. And even though he works for a corporate entertainment titan and I have my doubts about the guy, I still remember there is a giant duck 1,300 miles away who gives high fives and hugs to children from all over. 

Mike Gold lives and works in the Bronx.

Bronx, Florida, Palm Beach International Airport, New York, Orlando, Disney World, Donald Duck, Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Alabama, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Louisiana State, Florida State, Mike Gold

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