Back in the day, the day when Thanksgiving was considered a holiday and not an obstacle to Christmas. Back in that day when the only thing Black Friday meant in the city of Pittsburgh was yet one more very snowy or cold wet rainy overcast day as if the sun had left the heavens, back then the Friday after Thanksgiving was the one time a year the Wizard of Oz was shown on television. Most televisions back in the day were black and white and large enough to be considered furniture. Some really lucky families had purchased color TV’s, and for them the real magic of the Wizard of Oz was (the unnoticed in a black and white television) the scene when Dorothy’s house landed in Oz and suddenly everything was in glorious Technicolor. We had a black and white TV and heard these rumors of such a thing, but it was hard to imagine. I have an Aunt, Meercy who back in the day I thought was a clone of Doris Day. (She had blond hair a haircut like Doris Day was a single working woman so she seemed as sophisticated and savvy as I imagined Doris Day to be, and my Aunt loved to dance and sing…and the nicest thing is she is now 98 and still sings and dances). My Aunt Meercy worked for The National Organization of Theater Owners (NATO) and my aunt had access to all the paraphernalia(I didn’t know the term marketing back in the day) that would arrive on the Friday of Wizard of Oz. Remember back in the day having Wizard of Oz in your own living room WAS a big deal. My mother would warm up the left overs from Thanksgiving,usually cook even more food and invite the family over to watch Wizard of Oz. My Aunt Meercy brought with her a replica of the ruby red slippers, pieces of the Yellow Brick Road, and the real live cape (if only) of the actual wizard! How much better could life be!
Of course back in the day there were commercials during the movie, and Aunt Meercy was never one to let time pass without an educational moment. Being that I was sure she was Doris Day’s clone, I knew that whatever my aunt was going to tell us had to be true. Being related or a clone of a movie star meant you knew everything about the movies;AND after all my aunt worked for theater owners! Aunt Meercy would ask us how we liked what we just saw, and to imagine if we were any of the characters of the movie how we might feel. I was enticed by all of this and wondered often times if I might be brave enough or smart enough, you know the rest. I believe I was about 7 when once again Wizard of Oz was showing on television, (still black and white TV for us, but since more friends had a color TV and they told me about the amazing colors of Oz, I could almost see it) when my Aunt Meercy asked a different kind of question especially to me. This time her questions were not asked until we finally meet the Wizard. This time when my aunt asked her questions her jovial tone seemed a little more serious. So serious that my mother actually,”Meercy this is not school”. My Aunt Meercy asked, the following questions: “Do you think the Wizard has been lying?” “Is this man really a Wizard?” Are his intentions to help Dorothy, or just to keep on pretending he is important and powerful?” Serious stuff, so serious that the first time she asked these questions that I was not sure we were still talking about Wizard of Oz! I had no idea Doris Day was a serious lady!
Sadly, as time marched on and Wizard of Oz could be purchased as a video then a CD or seen on TMC, or On Demand so the specialness of the Wizard of Oz Friday was less shiny and so ordinary. For some reason a pang of nostalgia found footing in my heart and I decided to watch the movie. We have a 60” HD screen and in color (imagine that) and even though I had seen all of this before it was like eating greasy buttered popcorn at a movie theater and sitting on my home in Pittsburgh living room couch. I waited for the Wizard to appear and then realized just how important my Aunt Meercy’s questions regarding the Wizard really were. Are we mesmerized as a nation with promises and semi permanent solutions? Are we still looking for home somewhere else better hoping some person can lead us there. Do we have courage, heart and brains but need some else to find it for us? Are we permitting people running for president to lie, to wham-bam-thank you ma’m? When all is said and done will the Wizard Trump create the chaos and then fly somewhere on the other side of the rainbow, where the only people permitted will also have a gold key? Sometimes what seems magical is just flimflam and hocus-pocus!
