The Wicked Witch

The Wicked Witch

Whenever my mom calls me, the Wicked Witch Of The West's theme song from The Wizard Of Oz starts to play. Some may find this harsh or darkly funny, but the truth is, mom wholeheartily approves of her ringtone!

Don't believe me? Let me give you a little backstory. When I was in Brownies, mom was one of the leaders. She went from Snowy Owl to Brown Owl - former Brownies will understand what those titles mean. Every year we'd go camping in the summer. Brownies got to camp in cabins, while Guides and Pathfinders had to camp in tents. One year the leaders decided we would have a theme for the camp - The Wizard Of Oz. We coloured and heated up shrinkydinks of Dorothy and The Tin Man, called the path leading away from our cabin the yellow brick road, and each of the leaders took on the moniker of one of the characters from the movie/book. My mom chose - you guessed it - The Wicked Witch of the West!

We were all very well aquainted with the plot of Mr. Baum's story, so a few of the more mischievous Brownies and I got together and plotted to reenact one of the scenes from the movie. We got a bucket that was usually kept next to the fire pit in case of emergency, filled it with water, and placed it on the front porch. We got the most innocent-looking six-year-old girl to call my mom over to the cabin, then when she was standing under the porch, we dumped the bucket of water over her head.

Luckily for us, mom has always had a healthy sense of humour. She played the part perfectly, screaming and calling out "I'm melting! I'm melting!!" while pretending to sink into the ground.