A Dream shared with Disney
During the early 1960s my great-grandfather worked at Disneyland as a custodian.
He was a janitor, those hard working individuals who most of the time go unnoticed, and like butlers are often blamed for missing items. His job at Disneyland was to pick up the trash, clean toilets and make sure the park was kept clean throughout the day’s events.
He never complained about his job. Granted, it wasn’t the most luxurious position and cleaning up after other people — in this case thousands of them — wasn’t something to come home and brag about. Despite this, he always did his best and the quality of his work impressed those around him, including a man who was often seen riding in a golf cart overseeing the operations of Disneyland.
After park operation hours Walt Disney would on occasion pick my great-grandfather up in his golf cart and together they would ride throughout Disneyland. Walt was fascinated with Disneyland, a personal project of his, that had been in the works ever since he had the idea while looking out at the empty lot across from the Buena Vista studios. With my great-grandfather as his passenger Walt would proceed to give his guest a personal tour of the park.
In his tour he would share insights about the park and most important of all; his excitement for a dream come true. While most of the information shared with my great-grandfather stayed with him he did reveal that Walter Elias Disney was a man with unique vision and heart.
When my grandfather retired Walt Disney invited him to dinner and presented Johnny Reinsvold with a plaque. It commended my great-grandfather for his exceptional service and wished him the best in life. The plaque, signed by Walt Disney, still resides in the family and serves the purpose of reminding anyone that no matter what the job is what’s important is the quality of work that you put into it.