Off to See The Wizard - My Story (continued)

I was still in nursery, well – pre-school as we learned how to read, write and count. So, I was one step ahead of the rest of my class when I began at Ursuline Catholic Primary School. I was given a “READ IT YOURSELF” book of The Wizard of Oz. It was a highly condensed version of the full, 259 page book. It ended up that I would read and remember the book to its entirety word-for-word. I recently found a used copy of the book on eBay for a single penny.
The 1939 version of the film was definitely a new sight in my eyes with the emphasis on the dreary, bleak Kansas plain and on the colourfully, excitement of the Land of Oz. I obviously thought that it was all in sepia when I first began to watch it but, when Dorothy opened the door into Munchkinland I was fascinated! I don’t think I have the words, even now, to describe the emotions than ran through my body at that very moment. It was as if time had stopped. As if there was only me in the world and only me watching this video as if I had gone to Oz with Dorothy and I was following the Yellow Brick Road with her. My favourite character of the film was initially Dorothy but then I grew to liking the Scarecrow, then the Tin man and then the Lion. After this I wasn’t sure. I loved it so much that after it had finished I watched it over and over again. When I was about five years old, about two months before Christmas, I was is KwikSave (now Somerfield) with my mum and I was looking at the DVD’s/Videos and in stock they had the Wizard of Oz on DVD but not on video. At this time DVD players were becoming increasingly popular. So, I asked Santa Claus for a DVD player and the Wizard of Oz DVD for my Christmas present, much to my parents delight. I did receive the DVD at Christmas and as a shared birthday present I also got a DVD player and we all sat down and watched it, all five of us, Mum, Dad, Josh, Toby, My Nana, Uncle Peter, Aunty Marg and I all watched in my backroom.
Not realising she was dead, I began to fall in love with Judy Garland and convinced myself that we were to be married as I did not know the film was sixty years old at this point. When I travelled to the Isle of Man with my family for my brother, Josh’s, football tournament, I was in the gift shop looking at all of the available items. I came across a Judy Garland CD and I bought it. It contained mainly songs from Musicals plus a few others including an unforgettable rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Every child’s dream when they are young is to go to Disneyland or Disneyworld. I begged for us to be taken to Florida for years and it wasn’t until I was in Year Four when we actually got to go I was eight and it was the February half-term. In England, the weather was, as usual, horrible and in Florida it was “Highs of 38 and lows of 36.” We went to all of the parks, starting with MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) in which my Mum had kept a surprise from me, The Great Movie Ride which finished with a section of The Wizard Of Oz. She had told me that she had a surprise for me and kept the secret from me until we got there. I was so, so excited until, we got there. The ride was closed for maintenance. I broke down into floods of tears. A lovely, young Disney worker came over with some popcorn to comfort me.
I simply respond with the exact words “I don’t even like popcorn.”
However, the next year we were “supposed” to be going to Spain for a holiday. In the September of the previous year, our next-door neighbour and friend won a substantial amount of money, £700,000. She had asked my parents if we would want to go to Florida with them next year and she would pay for it all. But they were not allowed to tell us. None of the parents of the children who were going knew. When we got to MGM studios I finally got my chance to go on The Great Movie Ride and it was spectacular. This time I was so happy I was not given popcorn for my emotions.