Truly, an awesome question. I read this last night and was thinking about all the possible answers while trying to sleep. Since I grew up in Orange County, and worked there twice, I have lots of good memories.
There's my first Disneyland memory - holding onto my younger brother's stroller while we watched the fireworks.
There's the time my youngest brother found a $20 bill at the grocery store. At the time, I think that covered admission for the whole family - of course, we still had to buy tickets to go on the rides. We used to have a drawer in which we kept leftover tickets from each trip.
There was the school trip for the Bicentennial. We had specific tickets for all the patriotic attractions - America Sings, America the Beautiful, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and I forget the other 2. One of the attractions was down, so our chaperone took us from America Sings over to Mission to Mars, since it was right next door. We found out later that some of the other chaperones had taken their kids on the Matterhorn. Boy, were we ticked!
Disneyland was a big-deal date location, too. No one had annual passports, so if a guy were to take you to Disneyland, you knew it was serious. Plus, Inner Space had a well-deserved reputation as a "make-out" ride.
HM was good, too, but didn't have the same reputation.
But I think my favorite pre-employment memories were all involved with performing in the Candlelight Processional, which I did 5 times with my high school (yep, came back after I graduated as a ringer). That was when it was still held at the Main Street Train Station. The 1000-voice choir, made up of about 20-30 local choirs who auditioned hard for the opportunity, processed the entire parade route, from Small World to the train station, singing Christmas carols, then performed the 45 minute concert with a guest narrator. The herald trumpet players were on the top of the train station roof!
My first year, though, in 1978, was the best, even though we were rained out that year. It was pouring rain, but we had been rehearsing hard in the backlot anyway, in the hopes that the weather would clear. We'd been there since about 11 AM, and it was freezing cold. The rehearsal "hall" was just 2 adjacent carports off of Ball Street backstage. Cary Grant, the guest narrator that year, showed up in a limo at about 4 PM, dressed to kill in a very nice tux. He came with the report that the concert was cancelled due to the weather. But, he said, he'd like to go through the performance with us, anyway. He described in detail for us what had gone on the night before, then ran through the entire performance with us. He didn't have to do that, but the fact that he did showed what a classy man he was. So, while we were terribly disappointed, it was also a fantastic experience to sing for Cary Grant.
So, what does Disneyland mean to me? It means letting my imagination soar, and creating magical memories, no matter what, and it means home.