1965

In 1965 the following conversation happened between father and son. It began with the son running into a room after hearing a television press conference and saying to his father, “Hey dad. Have you heard the news? They say they’re building another Disneyland in the area. It’s far…but not that far. It’s near Orlando.” The father chuckles, knowing the sons idea is preposterous to the point of being comical. He laughs, confusing his son by his response. Clarifying, he says, “Mister Disney is not building another theme park. If he is actually building another park it certainly isn’t going to be in Florida of all places. Maybe New York, or DC, or heck even Cleveland but certainly not in the middle of gods-nowhere marshland Florida, all surrounded by the Everglades or anything solid, and no way it’ll be damn right in the center of that nowhere either. If they put one shovel in the ground they’ll strike water. So either Mister Disney has been conned or he’s the one doing the conning. Given his success over the years my guess is the latter. However, decades of worldliness have taught me that’s its more likely the latter.”
"But dad. They sounded serious. Mister Disney and Governor Burns said they would. Why would they lie?”

The Father looks at his son and smiles the way someone might smile, or chuckle to themself, if they realized that their teenage son still believed that Santa Clause or The Tooth Fairy still existed ”Son," he says, "Let me tell you something. They aren’t building the place for real. It’s all talk; hot air at best, at worse -- a con to bamboozle simple folk, simple folk who don’t know no better. Simple folk like us."
"Why?"
"You see once real estate speculators catch wind of all of this speculation and get hog happy and buy up all the surrounding land, thinking there’s going to be another Disneyland in the area, that's when the real fortune will be made. That’s when them clever Hollywood and New York lawyers of Mister Disney are going to sell that land many times over it’s original price and make truck loads full of money. They'll do so before anyone catches wind of the going-on scam. Leaving us with a huge profit and leaving the rest of us with land we couldn’t give away. It’s a con, son; true and true. A good one too. I got to give them credit. It's brilliant.” ”But…”
”Son. I’ve been in the world close to thirty years longer than you and in that time I have seen a thing or two and esteem myself a decent evaluator of character. This is all part of some clever scam so Mister Disney can make a whole lot of money swindling simple folk; and it’s a brilliant scam and it’s going to work because simple people want to make small wishes into big dreams. The people of Orange and Osceola county are being played. Like the “Music Man” and we’ll believe it because we’ll want it to be true. We want to be tricked as much as Mister Disney wants to trick us. Tat’s what them Hollywood-folks are counting on."
"But dad…!”
”Son. Ain’t no one building a theme park in Florida. There's no plan to and they never will. It's all a scam to make money. And one day when people lose interest in the space program, too, no one is going to have ANY other reason to visit Florida, less they want to go to Miami or the Keys soak in sun; and their ain’t no ferries to Cuba anymore. So there’s no business coming Florida's way way from that source either.” The father taps his son on the shoulder and says, “Ain’t nobody going to build a theme park in Orlando, and that’s that.”