Making Peace with the Wizard of Oz

When you’re a Kansan

My first memory of watching the Wizard of Oz is a brief flash lying on our 1970s gold velvet couch, watching Dorothy’s gray house get sucked up into the sepia tornado. I was lying down because I’d had a hard day of playing and I was only four. I didn’t really understand the movie I was watching, but somehow, I knew it was important. “Kansas” wasn’t yet a concept for me, and besides, my family was living in Tennessee at the time. That same year though, we’d move back to Kansas, the state where my parents were born — as well as four previous generations — and where all our people were.

Like the annual arrival of Easter, the special movie came to television in the spring of every year, and we never missed it, because in our house, it was treated like an event or a holiday. It’s Wizard of Oz time again! Get the popcorn! I’ll probably go to my grave knowing there’s a commercial break after the Cowardly Lion runs and jumps through the window of the Wizard’s palace, shattering the glass.

When you’re from Kansas, you’re far more aware of this movie in daily life than your average American. Even though ninety percent of the movie doesn’t even take place in Kansas, Kansas and the Wizard of Oz are inextricably linked.

For one thing, it’s about the only thing people know to associate with Kansas. There used to be a time many Americans knew Kansas is the largest producer of wheat in the United States, because they were familiar with the phrases “Breadbasket of America,” or “Wheat State.” But no one knows those sayings anymore, and lots of people from outside of Kansas seem to think Kansas grows a lot of corn. (I’ve found many city dwellers assume anything growing in a field is “corn,” but just FYI, corn is Kansas’ second largest row crop, while Iowa is the top producer of corn in the United States.)

Sure, some people think of the Kansas City Chiefs, but the Chiefs are actually a Missouri team — Kansas City is one of those cities that straddles two states — and most of the fun stuff, of course, is in Missouri.

So often, the only tangible idea of Kansas other Americans have to grab onto, is the film The Wizard of Oz. When you’re from Kansas, and you leave Kansas, you will hear Wizard of Oz Comments. “How’s Toto?”…

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