I grew up in Southern California and lived with my mother who worked very hard at a time when single parenting was not a common thing. So money was scarse mostly.
One night I had a dream about this place. It was like a town and so colorful and clean and everyone was smiling. I was carrying a balloon and licking an all-day sucker. There were 4 other children there, which was very odd since I was an only child.
Two days later I turned 7 years old. The morning of my birthday my mother's boss and his wife and kids came and picked me up. My mother's eyes were filled with tears and I wasn't sure what was going on. I think I was a bit scared that i woudln't see her again. But we drove and drove and I got to know the kids as they were close in age.
We pulled into a parking lot and I realized it was
Disneyland. I had never been but had of course heard of it. They bought us tickets (they had the color coded A B C D E ones then) and we went inside.
You can imagine my confusion as I was walking down the streets that I had dreamed about just days earlier. It wasn't until we were leaving later that night and I was carrying the balloon and eating the sucker that I realized that this was exactly the point that I remembered. Deja Vu.
That family did something special for me each year after that. They sort of adopted me I guess. I even spent summer vacations with them.