Disneyland has bestowed a rare honor usually reserved for Disney Legends instrumental in the creation of the Anaheim theme park on a beloved annual passholder who was as much of a Main Street U.S.A. mainstay over the past two decades as Mickey Mouse.
Disneyland has added a memorial plaque to a Main Street U.S.A. porch bench that pays tribute to Frank Rodriguez of Pico Rivera who was known to park employees and regular visitors as the “Porch Potato” and the “Mayor of Main Street U.S.A.”
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The plaque placed by the New Century Historical Society bears the quote “Every day is my best day” — Rodriguez’s personal motto.
The New Century Historical Society is a Disneyland preservation group that places plaques along Main Street U.S.A. providing historical context to icons and places of interest in celebration of the park’s 70th anniversary.
Porch Potato Frank Rodriguez sits on the Fargo’s Palm Parlor porch bench along Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland. (Orange County Register obituaries)The 79-year-old Rodriguez passed away in August after spending two decades hanging out on the Fargo’s Palm Parlor porch bench on Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A. where he would drink coffee, people watch and chat with friends and strangers.
The touching tribute to Disneyland’s Porch Potato is an honor rarely bestowed on annual passholders or everyday visitors.
“While the buildings up and down Main Street U.S.A. are covered with subtle tributes to the people who worked to build and expand Disneyland, it is very unusual for Disney to bestow that honor to someone who was not an employee,” according to MousePlanet.
Disneyland honors Lillian Disney with a Main Street U.S.A. window at Disneyland. (Courtesy of Disneyland)A tribute on Main Street U.S.A. is one of the highest honors awarded by the Walt Disney Company — a tradition started by Walt Disney himself.
Dozens of second-story windows on Main Street U.S.A. commemorate Disney pioneers, executives and creative talents who were instrumental in the creation of Disneyland.
The shop sign and window above Fargo’s Palm Parlor pays tribute to Roland “Rolly” Fargo Crump — a Disney Legend who helped create It’s a Small World, Haunted Mansion and the Enchanted Tiki Room.
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Rodriguez was no ordinary Disneyland passholder. He knew many Disney employees by name, from shopkeepers and ride operators to park managers and Disney brass.
Newly named Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro posed for a photo with Rodriguez on the porch bench during Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration.
After his death, the Main Street Silhouette Studio placed a framed portrait of Rodriguez on Fargo’s Palm Parlor porch that was filled with flowers and mementos from his friends and fans.
D’Amaro expressed his condolences to the Rodriguez family in the comments section of the Porch Potato’s Instagram page.
“One of my favorite things about walking down Main Street was seeing Frank,” D’Amaro wrote. “I feel so lucky to have spent time on the porch with him on our 70th anniversary and so sorry to hear of his passing.”
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The fifth of eight children, Rodriguez spent much of his childhood in doctors’ offices and hospitals as he battled polio, according to an Orange County Register obituary.
He eventually got married and had two daughters and four grandchildren.
Outside of his love for Disneyland, Rodriguez was a lifelong Dodgers fan who was known for teaching the neighborhood kids how to drive.
He spent 30 years as a truck driver hauling Miller Beer up and down the I-5 freeway in his 18-wheeler big rig.
He started each workday at 4 a.m. and never adjusted his internal clock after he retired.
Rodriguez began his Disneyland day before sunrise — arriving at the Toy Story parking lot by 5:30 a.m. The early arrival allowed him to make the Disneyland rope drop and take his seat on his porch bench at 7:45 a.m. each day.
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His Disneyland days were filled with chats with cast members, hugs with annual passholders and high fives with strangers from around the U.S. and all over the world. Occasionally, he’d leave his spot on the porch for a ride on an attraction or two.
Rodriguez left Disneyland everyday around 1 or 2 p.m. after the midday parade along Main Street U.S.A. so he could get home in time to read the mail, cook dinner and go to bed by 7 p.m.
“I don’t have any other interests. I don’t fish. I don’t hunt. I don’t golf,” Rodriguez said during an interview with the Happy Thoughts and Pixie Dust blog. “Because I don’t have nothing else to do, I come to Disneyland.”
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