LINDSAY SUTTON takes a Disney break – but not to a theme park or on a cruise ship

THE magic of childhood never left Walt Disney. All the adventures and experiences of small-town America were only too real for the man who became the world’s greatest animator.

Even Mickey Mouse was said to be based on him watching a real-life one scuttling across the floorboards.

‘Uncle Walt’ had the knack of being able to connect with children, and their parents, across the globe. Little wonder that he earned the title: ‘Keeper of Childhood Magic.’

He instinctively realised the importance of laughter and joy – and he captured it in his cartoon characters, and in his films.

The world may beat a path to Disney World in Florida’s Orlando, or Disneyland in California’s Anaheim, but a visit to Walt’s hometown in the middle of America gives you a remarkable insight into the real Disney. It was in little Marceline, in the heartland state of Missouri, that he drew his ideas for ‘Main Street, USA,’ which became the entrance theme at all his Disney resorts.

Marceline’s wide and long Main Street may not be as prosperous and diverse as it was when he was a boy in the early 20th Century, but you see what shaped him during his formative years.

You get a looking-glass view of those homely, childhood influences that made such an impression on young Walt between the ages of four and nine years old – influences that set the pattern for his highly creative adult life.

It may seem a bit of a ‘Mom and apple pie’ image of America, but if it seems over-idealistic, then pop into Ma Vic’s Corner Cafe to taste the real thing.

Home-made apple or pecan pie, complete with Dusty Miller’s Ice Cream, made to the same recipe as it was exactly 100 years ago, around the time when Disney was born. The ice cream’s sprinkling of Missouri malt is the key, just as it was when Walt bought one with money from his paper rounds.

Another famous Missouri boy – one Mark Twain, from Hannibal just down the highway, on the banks of the Mississippi River – summed it up when he said:

“I grew up with Missouri morals,