Wizard of Oz Plate
"Of the limited edition of "Over the Rainbow", painted exclusively for this edition by James Auckland. First issue in the official Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer "Wizard of Oz" collection. Handmade to the traditional standards of Knowles, the oldest name in American fine china. Edition firing schedule strictly limited to one hundred days. Plate number 15156. Copyright 1977, M.G.M."
I don't have much explanation for purchasing this plate, issued by the Bradford Exchange in 1977. I actually detest all of those so-called "Collector's Plates" and refuse to have anything to do with them. Yet, not only did I purchase this plate, but the entire series of seven, which at the time sold for $19.00 each (plus shipping and handling).
When I bought the first of the series of seven plates I had not been married long, having tied the knot sometime during the bicentennial year, and the last of the seven arrived post-separation and divorce in 1980.
Of all my childhood memories, one of the most vivid I have is when I was about five or six years old. My father was away on assignment with the military in Alaska and my brother and I were on own with my mother. We lived on Leary Drive, which is called a "project" these days in a derogatory manner, but back then was just another little neighborhood of condo-style apartments. I remember neighbors from that time and the bells of the ice cream truck in summer evenings. I remember detesting school passionately and doing whatever I could to not attend. I remember severe thunderstorms in the summer and being allowed to sit quietly inside the house with scissors and old Sears catalogs to cut out my own version of paper dolls or indulge in other fantasies. Then there were the occasional visits to Mountain Park and walks to swim in Community Pool.
Most strongly though I remember watching the Wizard of Oz on television with my mother. My brother was too young at the time and I think he was fast asleep in bed. The smell of clean jammies and curling up on the couch snuggling close to my mother and watching this film on our old television, the lights dimmed and yellow, are vivid to me, even now.
It affected me profoundly ... Dorothy, the munchkins, the wicked witch and of course the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow. I can recall my mother telling me of the actors who played these roles and understand now how confusing it was to be unable to distinguish the notion of "real people" versus the performance. (I can recall spending long hours wondering how people in the television westerns died and how it could be justified. Did they use "bad people" such as prisoners?)
That night I woke up with nightmares. Terrified, I ran to my mother's bed and crawled in to snuggle next to her, being careful to avoid hitting the sharp scissors she kept under a pillow as a weapon when my father was away. Mother woke, of course, and comforted me. The wicked witch was real for me but also I had kept to myself the other elements of the nightmare that were even worse: that my father was dead and gone. My mother believed in nightmares and dreams and I knew enough at that young age not to tell her and worry her.
I look back upon the Wizard of Oz, and it brings tears to my eyes. As a kid, when I thought of Judy Garland or Dorothy, the song represented hope and desire, the positive attitude. For, to Dorothy Gale, Oz was, at least for a time, a real place. An experience where she interacted with real beings. Dorothy was able to realize the value of home and family and after losing it, through a struggle, she was able to regain it. The veritable happy ending. My own happy childhood connection with home and family made this Real and meaningful. It holds a warm place in my heart.
Yet now, as an adult my somewhat jaded view toward life only sees it as a song of despair. The longing for a place that does not exist, for a time that will never be. Overall the song is one of hope and yet one of despair, a sad recognition of reality. Living our lives in the black & white segment and knowing no door we step will turn into full technicolor - at least not for long. For people seem unable to recognize and value that which they have. For Dorothy Gale, it took a trip to Oz to learn that lesson. Too bad we all can't take that trip over the rainbow.
Somewhere, over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come trueIf happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh, why can't I?Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg
Comments may be directed to:
Laurel O'Donnell
lod@zapix.com
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