I have to tell you about the little episode I had at DisneyWorld.

On Wednesday of the week, we went with the grandkids to the Hollywood Studios section of the theme park. I really liked this area. It looks like a section of old Hollywood. There is a Brown Derby restaurant and the streets carry such names as Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street. The streets are lined with shops, eating establishments and galleries. There are also attractions including a Star Wars section and an Indiana Jones stunt show with lots of fire and dramatics.

I enjoyed the Muppets 3D movie, while Diane slept through it.

We ate lunch in a restaurant that looked like a diner but, instead of the big menu you usually get in a diner, they had a buffet that actually had very good food.

Well, I’ll tell my story now. The closing show at the Hollywood Studios section was a laser lights and fireworks spectacular that is done over a lake.

It was quite good. The spectators watch the show from a large stadium built around one side of the lake.

The problem for me was I don’t work real well that late in the evening. The medications and electronics start losing their fight with the ever-increasing Parkinson’s Disease.

I was using my walking sticks to get around the park.

As I was leaving the area, I noticed Diane and her daughter, Tammy, stopped to get her stroller. I was still standing near the exit when a man in shorts and casual shirt approached me and asked if he could help me.

I told him, “No, I’m just waiting for my wife.”

He replied, “You know you are carrying a couple of potential weapons.”

I chuckled and said, neither I nor anyone else, for that matter, had ever referred to my walking sticks as “weapons.”

He then asked me which one was my wife.

I pointed out Diane and said, “She is the woman with the dark hair and pink backpack.”

He went over to her after calling someone else, and said, “He says he is waiting for his wife, I’m going to go check it out.”

He went up to her and asked if the guy with the sticks was her husband.

She said I was and he got back and told who was on the other end of the phone that everything checked out.

I told him that other people had mistaken her for my daughter rather than my wife because she looks younger than her age.

After he disappeared into the crowd, Diane asked me who that guy was.

“I guess he was a security guard in plain clothes,” I replied and told her about why he stopped me.

She said, “Now that’s really weird. Tammy saw the guy talking to you and questioned it to me. I looked and said that it was probably Alan’s latest friend. He’s always starting conversations with some stranger.”

So, I’ll always look at my sticks as potential weapons after this incident. At least it was a talking point for my column.

-------

The River of Time Museum has gone onto its summer hours. The new schedule is Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.