Maddie Petscher “Childhood” narrative

Walt Disney craved drawing. Drawing made Walt feel alive, it gave him

purpose, and it just made him feel good.At 16 years old Walt wanted to go off

and join the army but he was way too young so went into the medical field in the

army because they didn’t care how old he was. Even while being away Walt drew

about the soldiers. He always thought it was funny that these men could fight in a

war and see limbs flying all over the place but were grossed out by the thought of

sharing a blanket and called it cooties.

When Walt returned home he had little to no money and his brother

actually got him a job to work for some guy named Pesmen. It was an art studio

and Walt just really needed a quick buck so he went for the interview and ended

up getting the job. He was told to start that Monday.

That Monday came, and while working Walt turned and saw his new

coworker alongside of him and the first thing he noticed was his really crazy hair.

Before saying a single thing to this man he draws a picture of him which he

labels “man with crazy hair”, turns back towards him and hands him the picture

and tells him, “that’s you”. The mystery man finally talked and said his name was

Ub Iwerks. The one other thing that Walt noticed about Ub besides his insane
hair was how hard working of an artist he was. Ub was more hardworking than

him and he admired that.

Long story short Pesman didn’t have enough money to pay Walt anymore

so he had to let him go. He eventually let Ub go too. Both the men realized that

they were too talented to be working for some small rundown studio like that

anyway. And then Walt came up with a crazy idea.

Next thing Ub knew he was standing in a smelly, dark, crackety barn. Walt

then told him this is where they would start their own studio together. With both

their insane talents Walt thought it was possible. He knew if him and Ub just kept

working and working they would get it.

Walt wanted to create funny little drawings of real problems going on

around them to make people laugh. He wanted people to be able to sit down and

forget aout their problems while seeing their creations. Even if it only brought

them joy for 30 seconds, that's all they wanted, was to bring people happiness

even if it was in small amounts. They wanted to base their drawings off of

telegrams where they soon came up with the name “laugh-o-gram”. Walt soon

started getting into animation and started selling these at .30 cents a roll to an

extremely wealthy marketer. Mind you, this is exactly how much he was paying to

make the rolls in the first place which meant he wasn’t making a single ounce of

profit. He knew that, and stressed about it but decided not to tell anyone. But

these thoughts sometimes consumed him. He would always put on a fake smile
and almost lie and manipulate people to keep things going and keep people

working for him. And this became the first of his issues.

Eventually Walt did start growing the business and more people came to

help out, but money was always low.

The laugh-o-grams did them justice for a while but eventually his fancy

marketer that he received his income from just didn’t find any interest in them

anymore and the company eventually filed for bankruptcy. Walt felt hopeless

when he was let go. The anger and frustration filled him up. He was confused

and just felt defeated.

Soon after, Walt goes home to find a big red “eviction” sign right on his

front door. At first he couldn’t believe it. Still with disbelief he tries to open the

door but the resistance from the lock reassures him that he lost everything. He

couldn’t even go back inside to get his belongings.

Walt was at a low.

With nothing left all he could do was sleep in the office.

His coworkers found him the next morning.

They could tell Walt was really shaken up, and started suspecting that the

business was low on cash when their checks started to bounce. The men did still

have loyalty and love for him and offered to pay for whatever he couldn’t.

However, some of them just didn’t have the money or time to help him get things

figured out. Most of his employees that day walked out which left Walt with two

men working for the company. Feeling guilty and just exhausted he just continues
to write. His old brown cracky desk gave him comfort. Walt could escape his bad

thoughts and problems with drawing. His imagination filled his mind and forgot

everything else. The black ink and blank piece of white paper was all the therapy

he needed.

The men did help for a while but soon after they had lost the office and

Walt truly lost everything. He was struggling to keep a full stomach every single

day. He resorted to the only thing he had.

Drawing.

He sat down and just kept on drawing. He found hope in creativity. Even when

everything seemed to fall apart he could always lean on the one thing he was

good at.

In the midst of everything he starts to hear little footsteps.

He didn’t think anything of it at first, but then he hears them again.

He looks up from what he’s doing and notices a little mouse who was as white as

the color of snow.

Squeaking and moving its little nose. His whiskers were so small and almost

translucent but from the glimpse of the light on his desk you can see every single

one of them. He stared at it for just a little bit.

And soon that little rodent will change everything.