"WIZARD OF OZ" MEMORIES

I caught a little bit of "Wizard of Oz" the other day. It's amazing to me how, after all these years, watching that film makes me feel like I'm in grade school again.

Oldsters will tell the young'uns that back before DVDs, VCRs, iPods and MIMICs (Medically Implanted Memory and Information Chips, which are surely on the way), we only got to see "Wizard of Oz" once a year, and it was a very special event.

If you were REAL lucky, you got to watch it on a color television.

Here are three things my Adult Brain recalled my Child Brain thinking back when I watched "Oz" in grade school:

1.) We always knew it wasn't REALLY Bert Lahr who jumped through the window after being frightened by the Wizard.

2.) There's a non-dialogue scene during a musical number in which the Tin Man asks the Scarecrow a question; the Scarecrow makes a "thinking" expression; and then answers the question. As little kids, we always logically wondered: "How could the Scarecrow think without a brain?"

3.) Man, did that Wizard -- the "great and powerful Oz" version, that is -- look scary! It was like a scene out of a horror film! He was green with a giant, veined head! And he was see-through! And surrounded by flames! It was like an "Outer Limits" monster, but in color!