Where Did the Fairyland Dandelions Go?

Liesl Piccolo was, at least for a little while, something of a Children's Fairyland celebrity. Every weekend she would arrive at the park dressed in a frilly white dress layered over a blue shirt, white stockings and black flats, her blonde hair pulled back by a little headband. Then she would assume the most coveted role in the park: Alice in Wonderland. As Alice, she would roam the winding grounds, greeting visitors and doing performances. Some weekends she even traveled around the country to walk in parades.

"I wanted to be Alice so badly," Piccolo tells me, three decades later, recalling her audition monologue and song. Being a part of the Fairyland Personality program was a highlight of her childhood. "If you grow up here, and you come here, this place is the most magical," Piccolo says. "And I had backstage access."