My Search for Oz

 

I can honestly say when I first watched the Wizard of Oz I didn’t see all the special effects. Back in those days, (yes, I mean waaaaaay back) when nearly every television set was black and white, you made due.

 

My brother and I convinced ourselves we could make out the colors. I mean, a typical rural farm house is white, right? The pigs were most likely an Orchard white or black & white Berkshire. Glenda, the good witch, could only have worn white and had rosy cheeks. While the wicked witch’s complexion showed up as gray, I just knew it had to be a nasty pea-green face.

 

What I didn’t learn until I was much older….

 

Glenda’s hair wasn’t blonde, but a soft red. And the horse of a different color actually changed colors, going from royal blue, to purple, pink and even green.  

 

 

Back then I thought the Wizard was a mean old man, asking Dorothy to fetch the witch’s broom like that. How dare he? He knew it was dangerous. But now, I have to wonder. Do you suppose what he really wanted was to test her? To see if she had the heart and the courage to do what was asked of her, even though she’d clearly rather not. A character test, perhaps?

 

Or dare to dream.

 

Oscar Zoroaster (he had seven middle names) had been hot-air ballooning when he happened upon the strange village. Unlikely he’d ever make it back to Omaha, Nebraska, Oscar followed his own sound advice. Maybe he was challenging Dorothy to discover, adapt and over come. Which the Wizard did beautifully; he was given the best job in Oz, wasn’t he?

 

 

I’ll admit at the end, despite all of the new adventures and fabulous friends, Dorothy still wanted to go home. And I kept thinking to myself why? How could she leave everything glittery and magical in the the merry-ol-land of Oz to return home? To all the gray... and quiet, ho-hum existence?

 

Well, again, it wasn’t until years later, after all the Technicolor of my youth, that it makes sense to me now. I learned her actual words in the book were “Take me home to Aunt Em.” Dorothy longed to embrace those she loved before it was too late. And too, she craved the comfort of the sturdy old farm house with a scatter of chickens pecking and scratching around the dusty yard.

 

All this confirms what I’ve come to discover. Years pass but the heart will always carry the warmth and happiness of home and family, and the cherished memories that make up our lives. There truly is no place like home.