We’re not in Kansas anymore. Even if your are, it’s still
NATIONAL WIZARD OF OZ DAY!
On August 18, 1939, one of the most iconic movies of all time made its Hollywood premier, “The Wizard of Oz.”
We all know the story: “Young Kansas farm girl Dorothy gets conked on the head during a tornado, then her and her little dog Toto fly away in their farmhouse, which lands in a strange place called Munchkin Land, smack dab on top of the local Evil Witch, known affectionately as The Wicked Witch of the East, killing her instantly, setting the Munchkin People free, so they figure their oppressed brethren in neighboring Oz could use an Evil Witch killer too, and they have their pal Good Witch Glinda supply Dorothy with a pair of magic ruby slippers taken off the dead witch’s rotting feet and send her and Toto there by way of the Yellow Brick Road, with instructions to look up the Wizard when she gets there, the Great and Powerful Oz, who will send her home to Kansas, and on the way she teams up with a brainy scarecrow, a tin man and a cowardly lion, but they keep getting attacked by flying monkeys, angry trees, opium poppies, and the dead witch’s sister herself, The Wicked Witch of The West, who was absolutely manic about inheriting her dead sister’s ruby slippers, until they finally reach Oz, only to be ordered to whack the Wicked Witch of The West by the Don of Oz himself, the Wizard, which Dorothy finally accomplishes with a bucket of water, so they go back to Oz to collect their reward and find out that the “Wizard” was just some guy pulling levers and pressing buttons behind a curtain, but Dorothy gets to go home anyway when the good witch Belinda teaches her to click her heels together while reciting “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.”
Hey, it could happen!
• Suggested Activities: Asking why Glinda made Dorothy go through hell before telling her that she could have just clicked her heels together at any time to go home.