Wicked, Weird and Wonderful

 

"RUN DOROTHY RUN!"

When I watch The Wizard of Oz, still to this day, I get a little nauseous.  You see one of my earliest memories is hiding behind a chair at my babysitter’s house while the other kids watched the movie.  I could not close my eyes tight enough.  She was coming for me in all her green glory and I couldn’t get the image out of my head.  No matter how tightly I closed my eyes and even with covering my ears, so as not to hear her voice, I still would go home at night and have nightmares.  It’s silly really, all the other kids could sit and laugh at the flying monkeys and sing along with the munchkins, while little Lisa sat cowardly in the corner.  Then it happened, I would get a burst of braveness and squint open one eye, look at the screen and cry.  I would go home and continue on like nothing had happened.  Playing with my Barbies and going about my business.  My Mom would put me to bed, tuck me in tight and I would snuggle up with my stuffed friends, finally fall asleep, only to be awakened by her again.  The green, ohhhhhhh the green and her pointy nose and her jagged teeth and that ball of fire.  I hated her.  She was ruining my life.  As soon as I fell asleep and started to dream about playing outside, sleepovers with my friends or getting a new doll, she would creep into my mind and “Poof” ruin everything. 

    

She's one bad a#$ witch!

It started the same way each night.  I was sitting in the living room of my Grandpa and Grandma  Someone would call me so I would run up those iconic 1960’s stairs, only to find myself inside a small restaurant with a few cozy, red leather booths.  There’s a bar but it’s unattended so I sit down in the booth. I can hear my family’s laughter and see rays of light streaming in from the living room below.  Suddenly that familiar puff of smoke and crimson flame appears in front of the bar and she would be peering her beady eyes out at me.  Her broom reaches out like it’s going to touch me and I scream!  My stomach starts churning, even in the dream, my legs cannot carry me back down those stairs fast enough.  When I would finally wake up out of the nightmare, I would be at the side of my Mother’s bed, sobbing. 
Lento’s house, only it wasn’t their house, it was The Brady Bunch House.

Just a dream... perhaps?  But then why did I continue to have that dream till I was a senior in high school? Not only would I have the exact same dream, over and over and over and over again for years, but I could almost feel her breathing on the back of my neck. For some kids it’s the boogie man or the monsters under the bed, but for me it was the fear of the Wicked Witch of the West, grabbing my arm and whisking me up into the sky by broom. 

 

Best musical EVER!!!

As I matured into adulthood, the nightmare faded away.  Even so, I had a hard time watching the movie. Even when the previews flashed across the screen showing that it would be played on a cable channel around Thanksgiving, I felt a little sick.  Knowing that I had this phobia, a friend told me to read the book “Wicked”, the evil witch’s version of what happened in Oz.  So I borrowed the book and quickly became obsessed.  Such a classic story told from the villains viewpoint was absolutely enchanting to me.  This modern day version was darker and much more poignant.  As I would flip through the pages and read about how the Wicked Witch had been born with emerald hued skin, razor sharp nails and jagged teeth, which led to her ostracism from birth, I began to feel less afraid of the character and instead felt for her.  I grew sympathetic to her cause as a misfit while I continued to read.

She's really not so scary!

     Yes, I know that the Wicked Witch or Elphaba, is a fictional character. I know she isn’t real and I  Margaret Hamilton, in the 1939 original. Margaret Hamilton who was actually a young Kindergarten teacher before portraying this role. In fact she later stated that she regretted taking the part because of how badly children were scared of her. How do I know all this? Well let's just say I have spent many nights researching The Wizard of Oz and specifically the actress herself.
know that she was portrayed by a regular woman,
 
It's beyond strange to be so affected by a movie for such a large portion of my life, or to be so scared of a woman who taught 5 year old children how to read and was a Mother herself. But hey I'm weird! Maybe somewhere in my nightmare there was a hidden meaning or some subconscious thought trying to get to the forefront of my mind. I guess I will never know. But here is what I do know, my kids love The Wizard Of Oz and all the spin offs and we even just bought the first five books in The Wizard Of Oz series written by L. Frank Baum. Despite my fears I do find the world of Oz wonderful and can't wait to read the books to Gabby and Colton. So I guess I have no choice but to get over my issues with the Queen of Green and soldier on. 

 A little light reading for the summer!