M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E

"Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me? M-i-c-k-e-y M-o-u-s-e. Hey! there. Hi! there. Ho! There.  You're as welcome as can be. M-i-c-k-e-y-M-o-u-s-e.. Mickey Mouse.  Mickey Mouse. Forever, let us hold our banner high.  High! High! High!  Come along and sing a song and join the jamboree. M-i-c-k-e-y M-o-u-s-e.

I can't believe that I still remember the words to the Mickey Mouse Club March.  Well, it shouldn't be too surprising since I watched it just about every weekday afternoon at 5 PM.  The show premiered in 1955 and ran for a couple of years.  My friends and I were avid fans and completely enthralled with anything that had to do with the Mickey Mouse Club.

For the first year or so that it was on, I had to watch it at my friend, Terry's house.  We didn't have a television. After getting home from school, I changed into my play clothes, probably did a chore or do and maybe practiced the piano before cutting through Jeff's backyard and climbing the fence to get to Terry's house.  We each had our favorite Mouseketeer.  I loved Karen Pendleton and Terry loved Darlene Gillespie. When Mickey Mouse Club wasn't on, we would play Mickey Mouse Club pretending that we were Karen and Darlene.

We were pretty obsessed.  We sang and danced along with Mouseketeers every afternoon.  In our minds, we were Mouseketeers.  Some time during our Mickey Mouse Club days, a new girl started at our elementary school.  Terry and I were convinced that the girl who moved in wasn't really Carolyn, but Darlene Gillespie.  Carolyn looked similar to Darlene.  We followed Carolyn home from school one day just to see where she lived and worship her from afar.  Silly girls.  I got in big trouble with my mother when I finally got home.  I was always to come straight home from school.  My little diversion of about an hour that day landed me sitting on a chair in the middle of kitchen while mother made dinner.  I missed Mickey Mouse Club that day too. I don't think there could have been any worse punishment.

It was our dream to be able to visit Disneyland which had been opened in Anaheim, California.  Only one of our friends actually got to go to Disneyland.  It was a really big deal to us when Susan and her family made the cross country trip for a family vacation.  We were beside ourselves and really jealous that she was going to the land of Mickey Mouse and would probably meet ALL of the mouseketeers while there. She didn't meet any Mouseketeers.  But she brought us all Mickey Mouse ears.  We were in heaven.