Morgan’s Wonderland: First Impressions

I drove into the parking lot of Morgan’s Wonderland around lunch time on Friday, tasked with observing the park and giving a short report to my professor on the facilities. Standing next to someone’s green Jaguar with oversized chrome rims I surveyed the entrance and parking area; it looked like any other amusement park in any other city...I was so very wrong.

To understand the park you must first understand why, and the why is Morgan. Morgan is a special needs daughter of the Hartman family. Yes, those Hartmans of The Gordon Hartman Family Foundation. A few facts about Morgan that are posted on a sign near the parks entrance:

• “Morgan was born September 19, 1993.”
• “Her Middle name is Elizabeth.”
• “When the Park opened in 2010, Morgan was 16 years old.”
• “Morgan loves her dog & cat.”
• “Morgan is 6’4” tall and wears a size 13 shoe.”
• “Morgan loves to listen to music & watch videos.”
  

There are a number large pictures of Morgan hanging next to the fact boards and in all her face is alight with a beaming smile...a smile I was soon to see in many faces very similar to Morgan’s.

Upon entering the park you can tell immediately that a parent was involved in designing the place. All members’ of a party are issued coordinated electronic wristbands that allow members of a party to track and locate each other while in the park through any of the Location Stations spread through out the park. There is also only one entrance/exit with attendants on either side to make sure no child wanders out accidentally and to avoid anyone leaving with a child that is not theirs. They actually control the flow of traffic into and out of the entrance foyer to help maintain security and accuracy.


Once past the attendants you are greeted with an open unrestricted environment, a land of joy and experience for those who had no such place. At Seaworld, Six Flags, or any other theme park the designers made accommodations or adaptations, not here. At Morgan’s there are no accommodations or adaptations, they aren’t needed, this park is for those people who usually need modification. This park is their’s!

To the left of the entrance is the Water Works, a tactile and sensory exploratory station. There are small water guns with long handles with large ball ends for easy manipulation, buttons are large and easy to push, and targets are plentiful in many sizes. Everything moves, splashes, twists, slides or squirts. Even an adult could spend an hour playing here, a child with an inquisitive mind could lose them self in this aquatic menagerie.

There are multiple playgrounds in the park with many of the familiar structures but all with a twist. The ramps are wide enough of any mobility device, the slides are made of rollers to allow easier transition, the seats are made to give extra back support, there are multiple textures, and things that make sounds through movement and touch. They even have an item called Sway Fun which is basically a giant family sized see/saw that can hold just about anyone short of a person in a hospital bed. The swings come in all shapes and sizes, up to ones that will handle a chair and occupant with a combined weight of up to 700 pounds.

Morgan’s also has a one of a kind custom made carousel, again complete with seating for anyone short of the hospital bed and I bet that given a few minutes the attendants could even figure that out too.

There is a gymnasium with a full size basketball court, an adventure vehicle ride with little “jeeps”, a sand pit, giant musical instruments, and a sensory village with experiences for everyone. Just around the corner is the fishing pier which extends out over the lake. In the center of the pier is a special fishing spot where the attendants bait and help the kids fish for catfish in the stock pool. Nothing fake here, real fishing poles with real bait and the kids are catching real fish from the lake: strictly catch and release. The squeals and cheers of shear joy from the children who caught a fish was more beautiful than a chorus of a thousand angels.

Not to be forgotten is the Wonderland Express. Yes, they have their own train! I do believe the yells and squeals may have rivaled the fish catching.

For anyone who lives within driving distance of San Antonio it is worth the drive and for those who live farther away, Canada, California, Maryland, and have a child with special needs it is worth the trip if you are looking for a vacation spot. You can enjoy all the other attractions of San Antonio and then spend a day at Morgan’s Wonderland with your special needs kids. The pure joy on there face will make it worth it. I am not the parent of a special needs child and even I could feel the joy in the air from the children. I imagine the emotional level of a parent seeing their child able to play so freely for the first time would be overwhelming. Oh, and don’t mistake it as a place just for kids, there were special needs adults there too and their smiles were just as big. Seeing a father who was in a wheel chair able to chase his kids around a play ground was a wonderful thing.

I could spend many more pages, hell I could probably write a novella describing the wonder that is Morgan’s Wonderland but I will leave you with this small sample and hope that you too will find the time to experience this unique environment and too Morgan and her family I can say simply thank you.

You can view my photos of Morgan's at http://www.flickr.com/photos/anjacot/

Please visit their website at: http://www.morganswonderland.com

You can also find them on Facebook.

The American Revolution Wasn't.

This was written in response to the following question my history teacher posed to us this past week.

"How can the American Revolution be described as a conservative revolution?"

To answer the question one must first understand the question and its parts. The term revolution as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary: “1. a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system. 2. a dramatic and far-reaching change”. Now juxtapose that against the definition for conservative: 1. averse to change and holding traditional values. 2. (in a political context) favouring free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas”.

To use the adjective conservative to describe a revolution seems like a contradiction and they should counteract each other yet with the American Revolution it seems to fit. There was no true change of power and the people with the money kept their money. The legislatures of the colonies kept doing business as usual and the land owners still had their land and slaves. No new freedoms were granted and no truly new system was put in place. The only real difference was that the colonies cut ties with Britain. A connection that was really only maintained through taxes and a name. For all intensive purposes the colonies had become independent states long before the first volley was ever fired.

A good example of things stayed the same is a quote a reference Zinn made to Beards work. “Beard applied this general idea to the Constitution, by studying the economic backgrounds and political ideas of the fifty-five men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to draw up the Constitution. He found that a majority of them were lawyers by profession, that most of them were men of wealth, in land, slaves, manufacturing, or shipping, that half of them had money loaned out at interest, and that forty of the fifty- five held government bonds, according to the records of the Treasury Department.” The founding fathers “new” system was based on the English system and was neither far reaching or dramatic but it was conservative.

In truth you could say they didn’t have a revolution but instead they had the “American Conservation”. The ruling class kept their power intact and even to some degree increased their power. By removing the acceptance of the monarchy as their ultimate ruler and the British Parliament from their chain of command they moved upwards in the power scheme.

The “American Revolution” was only a revolution in the most limited use of the term. Their form of government largely remained intact they simply exchanged a monarch for a president; many argued for a monarchy but luckily they were in the minority.

If you look at the definition from Merriam-Webster’s dictionary the concept of the American Revolution is even less accurate: “1. an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed. 2. Sociology. a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, esp. one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence. 3. a sudden, complete or marked change in something: the present revolution in church architecture”. By this definition one can not even call what happened in colonial America a revolution. There was no establishment of a new system by the people, no radical sociological change or a “marked” change in really anything they did. It really does fit the definition by Merriam-Webster of conservative: “1. disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change. 2. cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate. 3. traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness: conservative suit”.

When I looked at the accepted definition of what a revolution is it becomes very clear that the “American Revolution” was not. The founding fathers put forth an “American Conservation” and they kept the people who had power in power and that scheme has changed very little in the 234 years since they declared their independence from England.