Many months ago, several members of our Sunday school class purchased tickets to a production of The Wizard of Oz.  We got 3 tickets, because I knew that 2 hours of sitting still in a theatre would not be a fun time for Sarah Amelia (or for the parent trying to deal with a squirmy baby for 2 hours).

Fast forward to 3 days before the show….  In typical fashion, something happened to complicate our plans.  Sarah started running a fever – ear infection, again.  We figured that she would be well enough for us to leave her with a babysitter by Friday but no.  She was sickly for the rest of the week.  This left us with a few options: (1) one parent stay home with Sarah and the other take Rachel to the show (2) skip the show entirely, so we can finish packing for upcoming trip (3) skip the show so I could go into work to catch up.  We chose #1, and I took Rachel to the show.  Don’t worry, Sarah was doing a lot better and wasn’t too much work for Bryan.  She was almost ready for bed by the time Rachel and I left for the show.

That evening, getting Sarah ready for bed was easier than getting Rachel ready for the show.  She didn’t want to “dress up fancy” for the show.  After explaining over and over and over that this wasn’t just something that I wanted but what everyone else did, she didn’t believe me.  UGH!  This kid was still driving me crazy over her clothing choices.  Bryan intervened and explained to her that I wasn’t wrong and told her that it was a “requirement” to dress up for the theatre.

By an ironic twist, Rachel had a cute little blue and white gingham print dress AND bright red shoes.  The dress was purchased last year after Easter (deeply discounted at Gymboree).  She loves (and I mean LOVES) fancy shoes.  I had previously bought the shoes because they had glittery high heels, which was a big hit with her.

My little “Dorothy”

I thought – WOW – how cute would it be if she wore those.  I knew there was no way she would let me braid her hair, but the outfit seemed reasonable.  Thankfully, she agreed 🙂

So we were “off to see the wizard”.  Rachel was excited.   On the drive into town, I told Rachel that when I was a kid the movie  only came on tv  once a year, and it was a MAJOR event!  “You mean you couldn’t record it and watch it later?” – one of many bewildered questions from Rachel.

I think that Rachel (and many 7 year olds) don’t realize that their moms were once 7 year old little girls.  I told her that I was about her age when I first discovered the Wizard of Oz and fell in love with the movie.  I reminisced about calling  my cousin Gretchen about 30 minutes before the movie and essentially doing a countdown before the show!  I told her that just like her dad watches movies with her, my dad would watch “The Wizard of Oz” with me – depending on what shift he was working in the mines.  I also told her that I would pretend that I was Dorothy and that my cousin Sean would ask me “Dorothy, Dorothy, Dorothy have you seen the Wizard today!”  LOL – that is actually one of the funniest memories I have from childhood, despite not being thrilled about it at the time.

Rachel couldn’t believe that I had to use my mom’s house shoes as a stand in for the ruby red slippers. “You didn’t have dress up clothes and shoes like Dorthy when you pretended to be Dorothy?”  I explained to her that back in the day, kids didn’t have everything they wanted all of the time…

After our little rap session, we made it to the show and had dinner with our friends.  It was a nice show.  The movie is like a sacred work of art, so I was happy that Andrew Lloyd Webber didn’t mess up the Broadway production.  Fortunately, it held very close to the movie.  The tornado effects were really cool.  It was so cute to watch Rachel’s reaction to the tornado.  She leaned over just before it was starting and said “oh mommy, here it comes!’  She even covered her eyes briefly!   I know that parents shouldn’t live through their children, but I was.  For those 2 hours, I was once again an excited 7 year old little girl experiencing  the magic of the story.

I asked Rachel what was her favorite part of the show, and she said “everything”!

At the end of the show, some of the cast members were taking donations for an AIDS charity.  Rachel gave the Tin Man some money and had her picture taken with him.  On a side note, I don’t remember the Tin Man being that cute in the movie – hehehehe.

Rachel and the Tin Man 🙂