Let's start at the beginning...

I knew Walt for many years. We were very close, and if anyone is able to relate the facts surrounding his astonishing accomplishments, I may be the most likely narrator remaining.

I won’t reveal my identity because you probably would doubt that it’s really me. It’s true that most mice can’t type very well, but I have a voice recognition program that I borrowed from Tomorrowland several years ago.

The story begins long before Walt and I met. But he told me about it one night on a train ride. So I’ll relate it here, just the way it was told to me. I’ll try not to elaborate too much because I realize you’re probably interested in the true story.

Walt was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1901. His given name was Walter Elias Disney, named after his father, Elias Disney, an Irish-Canadian. Walt’s mother, Flora Call Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt had three brothers and one sister.

In 1906, when Walt was four, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri. While in Marceline, Walt developed his love for drawing. One of their neighbours, a retired doctor named "Doc" Sherwood, paid him to draw pictures of Sherwood's horse, Rupert. The red house is the Disney farmhouse in Marceline. Walt told me about the tree in the other photo. This was Walt's dreaming tree. It's a cottonwood tree located on their 45-acre farm where Walt whiled away the hours daydreaming.

Walt also developed his love for trains in Marceline. The tracks of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ran through the town, and Walt would put his ear to the tracks in anticipation of the coming train. Then he would look for his uncle, engineer Michael Martin, running the train.

The Disneys remained in Marceline for four years before moving to Kansas City in 1911. There, Walt and his sister Ruth attended the Benton Grammar School where he met Walter Pfeiffer. The Pfeiffers were theatre aficionados, and introduced Walt to the world of vaudeville and motion pictures. Soon, Walt was spending more time at the Pfeiffers' than at home.

And that’s the early years in a nutshell. There are a lot more details I could reveal, but that’s enough for now. We’ll pick up tomorrow where we left off.