City Voices

LANDGREN WORCESTER VOTES TO LIFT MASK MANDATE

HARVEY

Grandkids provide all the magic at Disney World

Janice Harvey

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to have to paint it. — Steven Wright

The older I get, the shorter my bucket list. Cross off Disney World. I have been to the mountain — Space Mountain, that is.

That’s not entirely accurate. I climbed aboard a grand total of three rides during the six days spent in Orlando, thanks to my paralyzing fear of heights. Why, you ask, would a person terrified of heights go to the ultimate theme park? Was it for the French fries? The funnel cakes? The popcorn? The answer is simple: my kids.

My Christmas/birthday/retirement gift from my daughter and her family was a trip to the place they adore. This was their fourth visit to the land of Mickey, and my daughter wanted me to experience the magic. I felt the magic when I realized that the room they rented at Disney resorts was a suite, and I had a bed and bath all to myself. With a door that locked.

Planning a virgin trip to Disney World elicited from seasoned warriors grins and recommendations — and the same warning from all: “Bring good sneakers.”

WORCESTERIA

There are still local businesses that provide a personal touch

Victor D. Infante

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

A week or so ago, I found myself at the Natick Mall. After years of watching the Worcester area’s indoor malls decline into decrepitude, eventually to be shuttered, it was a tad surreal to see one packed with bustling stores and paying customers. Sadly, I found there was nothing there that particularly interested me. Maybe a few items at the Amazon Store, but I figured I could probably get them cheaper online. Uhm, on Amazon, I guess.

I’ve never been a big shopper, but it seems I used to find a few items of interests at malls. Now, it all seems so prepackaged and pedestrian. To be fair, it was always like that, but I guess my interests have diverged from what the corporate retail chains offer. I think a big part of that shift has been 20 years of living in Worcester.

This was what was on my mind as I drove to Charlton at 8 a.m. on a recent morning to replace a tire that had two nails in it. It was irreparable, but I was covered by road hazard insurance, and the place I bought the tire from, Dick’s Tire Barn, has always been straight with me. I learned this lesson shortly after I first moved to Worcester, when I went in looking to replace four tires, and got berated by Dick himself: “Why are you replacing these two tires? They’re perfectly good! These other two, yeah, but not these two!” I left with two fewer tires than I expected to buy, and he gained a customer for

A very good boy keeps Victor Infante company while he waits for his tire to be replaced at Dic’'s Tire Barn in Charlton. VICTOR

D. INFANTE/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

life.

Perhaps that’s what bugs me about corporate stores: They seem so impersonal. This seems self-evident – as much as Target wants us to have a personal relationship, it’s strictly business – but when you deal with a business that you DO have a personal relationship with, you can feel the difference. I’ll admit, I kind of feel like I have a relationship with the CVS pharmacy where I pick up my prescriptions, but that seems more an exception than a rule. I’ve kept the same mechanic for 20 years, and went to the same dentist for most of that, until he retired.

Another example: Grubhub and its ilk have served me well during the pandemic, but it pales before the experience of coming into Annie’s Clark Brunch on a busy weekday morning, and having owner Annie Jenkins remember your regular order … which isn’t actually on the menu anymore, but she makes it anyway. Or sometimes, just stopping to chat a minute with Fatima’s Café owners Fatima Mohamed and Omar Issa while picking up take-out. It’s the little interactions that make the difference between a transaction

Grandkids

Continued from Page 8

No one really explains just how much walking and waiting you’re in for when it comes to Disney. It reminded me of the vague remarks mothers make to pregnant women when asked about labor. The common advice is: “Take the drugs.” In this case, the drug would be Tylenol — by the handful.

“No one comes to Disney for the food, Mom,” my daughter chided when I commented on the “cheese” in my omelet. Truer words were never spoken, although I had two good meals, thanks to Epcot. I had to “travel” to England for fish and chips and Japan for grilled shrimp. The hibachi chef thrilled my five-year-old granddaughter with his knife and cleaver juggling. The gleam in her eye made me take note to hide all sharp objects from that little daredevil. She’s the one who shamed me at age four, when I rode the Ferris wheel with her at Old Orchard Beach.

“Nana’s eyes were closed the WHOLE time!” she announced to the entire fairground. There is no roller coaster she won’t ride, no race car she won’t steer. No danger she won’t consider.

My grandson and I are kindred spirits. He’s nine. He loves maps. He loves them so much that he spent six days with four of them in his sweatshirt pocket, pulling them out to plot our day. He’s so much like me that he really loved the Hall of Presidents and didn’t even laugh at me when I wept over the reading of the Constitution. He even enjoyed the Walt Disney documentary that had no line waiting, go figure. I told him details left out by the narrator, like how Walt’s mom died from carbon monoxide poisoning in the house he bought for his parents.

“I’m pretty sure that’s why all his movies have dead parents in them,” I whispered. Just a guess on my part, but he found it morbidly fascinating. Grandmothers are granted a wide berth when it comes to what Stephen Colbert calls “truthiness.”

We were in Florida for the storm that dumped nearly two feet of snow on Worcester, but we brought an unwelcomed cold snap with us. I spent a hundred bucks on sweatshirts I never thought I’d need. Try buying anything that doesn’t have Mickey Mouse on it — impossible. It was 39 degrees in Orlando the morning the snow fell on the seven hills. Still, it was a tad better than the photos from back home, it didn’t rain, and I didn’t have to worry about squeezing my post-quarantine body into a pre-pandemic swimsuit.

Watching new Mickey Mouse cartoons, I came to the grim realization that the mouse has been tampered with in ways that would make the cryogenically-frozen Walt thaw out and fire the animators. (I don’t know if those rumors about Walt being put on ice post-mortem are true, but again, they make a deliciously gruesome tale to share with a kid.) I kept looking at Mickey, whose eyes now resemble the dead orbs of a shark, and the strangely familiar way he now speaks out of the side of his mouth. The frenetic pace of the cartoons, the exaggerated reactions of the characters — I’d seen it all before, but where?

“Ren and Stimpy,” my daughter said. She’s right — the sweet, mischievous mouse now has the same edginess as the nervous chihuahua. I had to stop and think about this, as a Ren and Stimpy fan, as well as a lover of all things animated by Disney. My cartoon worlds collided! At first, I thought the cartoons were too violent, but then I remembered how much I Ioved Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny shorts, and how incredibly violent those were. What was funnier than seeing Wile. E. Coyote get scorched by his own dynamite? Or Daffy Duck’s beak getting blown off and landing on the top of his head? I still think Walt would have a conniption over any changes made to his beloved alter ego, but apparently there’s room enough for Steamboat Willie and the new mouse to coexist.

The best part of my trip to the Wonderful World of Disney? When the kids climbed into my bed with their tablets before sunrise. Will I return to Disney? Not likely. But those small feet under the blankets, the maps that we followed and the joyous squeals over cotton candy made every minute of the trip worthwhile.

As Ren would surely say, “Happy!Happy! Joy!Joy!”

Mickey and Minnie in front of the Magic Kingdom's castle at Disney World. DISNEY

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BAD ADVICE

Drunken prank deserves harsh payback

Shaun Connolly

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

DEAR SHAUN: We had a party at our place and I had too much to drink and passed out. When I woke up my roommate’s friends drew pictures of male sexual organs on my face with sharpie! It took me weeks to get them off, and I got reprimanded at work. I told my roommate that her friends weren’t welcome anymore at our apartment, but she thinks it was a silly prank and I’m making too big of a deal out of it. What should I do? – Not Up For Partying Anymore

Dear Not Up For Partying: You’ve got to double down. You can’t ban them from the apartment. You have to have them over again and drink them under the table. Then when they are passed out you get their wallets and you write whatever sensitive information they have there. ATM Card number, Driver’s License number, Social Security, passwords, and you write those on their faces. You have experience, you know that those will not wash off for

Party’s over for mean-spirited pranksters. GETTY IMAGES

weeks. So these mongrels will be a walking billboard for all of their most precious information. Make sure your roommate is on this too, they tried to lessen your feelings and brush it off. They need to pay too, and then their bank will pay the overdraft fees.

DEAR SHAUN: My teenage daughter, who has always been artistic and quirky, has recently taken up a new hobby that I find disgusting: taxidermy. It’s bad enough that she’s handling dead animals, but she doesn’t even make them look natural. She puts little top hats on them and monocles and stages scenes from movies. Her art teacher thinks they’re “fabulous” but I think she’s lost it. Should I forbid her new hobby? Or will that just make her do it on the sly? Am I thwarting her artistic career, or nipping something potentially dangerous in the bud? – Bewildered Dad

Dear Bewildered: This is awesome. Encourage it. A raccoon with a little top hat and monocle? I’m in. Two squirrels doing the lift scene from “Dirty Dancing?” A bunch of little chipmunks playing volleyball in short shorts like “Top Gun?” A bear sitting at a TV news desk and saying “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”? This is great. Maybe she can get so good that eventually she works for a funeral home. Think about it, we are running out of plot space, cremation weirds some people out. But what if there was your loved one, frozen in the way you remember them best, drinking coffee and looking at their phone or watering their garden. Your deceased mother could be your own personal garden gnome. I say push her, like you’re Venus and Serena Williams’ father. Push her to her limits and make her the best.

Worcester comedian Shaun Connolly provides readers bad advice in his weekly column. Send your questions to woocomedyweek@gmail.com.

Personal

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and a community.

Perhaps that’s why people get so freaked out about the rate of change in the city these days. Certainly, it sometimes feels like things are disappearing at an alarming rate. On Facebook, I posed the question, “What's the Worcester County business you or your family has patronized the longest, and why?” Musician, radio show host and condiment purveyor J. Stuart Esty, also known as Dr. Gonzo, replied half-jokingly, “Spags, sorry. White City Cinema, (expletive). Fairway Beef, damnit. Elwood Adams, ah, (expletive). The Dive Bar and both Sir Morgan's/Lucky Dog, oh, no... RALPH's!!! the burgers, the people, the music the vibe –and Ralph – miss you too sir.” That’s pretty indicative of the Worcester perspective on what’s being lost as the wheel of change rolls on. That said, lots of people were able to point out a variety of local businesses which they’ve been loyal to for years, including The Boulevard, George's Coney Island, That's Entertainment, O'Connor's Restaurant & Bar, Miss Worcester Diner, Ed Hyder's Mediterranean Marketplace, The Broadway, The Pickle Barrel, Peppercorns, Bahnan's International Marketplace, Bakery & Café, Wayne's Pizza, The Owl Shop, Island Auto Repair, North End Motor Sales, Central Shoe Services Co., Barrows Hardware, Long Island Hot Dog & Restaurant, Speedway Garage, Dippin Donuts, Shrewsbury Pizzeria, Sturbridge Vet Hospital, Salem Cross Inn in West Brookfield, Michael's Bridge Diner in Lancaster, Huhtala Oil Co. in East Templeton, Whitco Sales in Spencer and DuPree Power Equipment in Leominster.

That’s a pretty hefty list of local businesses that are still here and beloved by at least someone, compiled in mere minutes on social media. Is there a point, here? I don’t know. Maybe that it’s easy to get caught up in what’s lost – to gentrification, to competition, to changing times and tastes or to owners simply deciding to retire – and maybe it’s pretty easy to surrender to the allure of big chains, the type of which are identical across the country. But sometimes, in the hullabaloo, it’s easy to lose track of the places that have been in our lives for years, the places that remember your order, even when you haven’t been in for a couple of months, who’ve earned your loyalty through straight-talk for years. There are still plenty of those places around – and more than a few newer ones, too. There are still places where it’s possible to differentiate between making a mere transaction and living in a community.

But the Amazon store was kind of cool, too. It was like a Waldenbooks with appliances. I suppose that counts for something.