When Jessica Ceballos y Campbell worked from Disneyland, she started her morning hours at the park’s Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor way before the crowd appeared about lunchtime. After registering her departure from remote work, this Highland Park artist spent her afternoon hours roaming this amusement park, watching and noting down the happy things that happened there. In 2019, OC Weekly reported that Campbell’s writing stint at Disneyland would one day contribute to her poetry project ‘Happiest Place On Earth’. The project revolved around Campbell’s Disneyland visit in 1984 with the writer’s mother when under supervision as a foster child.
Anyhow in August 2019, Campbell’s observant eye made her take note of Tomorrowland at Disneyland in a manner that she had not previously. Back then, she wondered why a farm existed in Tomorrowland.
Campbell noticed a bunch of kale, too, and the writer’s curiosity level only went up from that point. She discovered oranges, spinach, avocados, chile peppers, parsley, garlic and basil.
She started to research on the internet only for some pieces of writing dedicated to the oft-disregarded agrifuture concept of Tomorrowland. That concept was supposed to showcase the utilization of free real estate to cultivate food for people. There was a sign around the Disneyland Railroad that read ‘agrifuture’, with a robot depicted as watering plants. Anyhow, with all of Tomorrowland’s sensory distraction, one could easily overlook the orchard there for all the trees.
Campbell was cautious about the parsley, considering its state of being proximate to the fumes of diesel that chugged out of Disneyland’s Autopia. Anyhow, she never rinsed off and tried a leaf of mint from somewhere else. She said that she picked the leaves in the presence of Disney employees, and that they did not seem to mind it. She was unsure whether all the plants were as edible as mint, and could not seem to have a clear and honest answer about that.
OC Weekly reported in 2019 that Campbell’s agrifuture revelation might be included in one of her side projects, but it could be easily woven into her ‘Happiest Place On Earth’ narrative.
The vegetation opened up an entirely new viewpoint for Campbell and another thing to take to her work.
