The Bravo summer program at Brooks Middle School presents The Wizard of Oz on July 14, 15 and 16. The best part for me? My daughter Jessie gets to be a Winkie! (A guard of the Wicked Witch of the West in her sinister Castle of Evil.)
“Dad, I’m only a guard,” she said, eyes rolling in her newly-minted, teenaged fashion.
I grinned. “Only a guard? You’re a Winkie!” I marched in place and burst into the Winkie song: “O DEE O – O DEE O!”
That earned me another eye-roll. How could I explain it to a girl born into the Era of Easily Accessed Video?
Jessie was born when I was 49. So I was a child in the ’60s, and the Wizard of Oz was only on TV once a year. Back in those Dark Age Days before VHS, DVD, iPhones, or even the ubiquitous color television, the movie could only be seen on CBS, which owned the broadcast rights until the early ’70s.
And yet, somehow, kids memorized the entire film. We knew all the complicated wordplay of “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.” (“positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably dead!”) We sang all three sections of “If I Only Had a (Brain, Heart, the Nerve.)”
But the “O DEE O” song! That was the song. Kids sang it to march through the halls at school, we sang it tramping through water puddles, we sang it early on Saturday morning when it would wake up angry Mr. Derro down the block. My earliest memory of the song is thinking the words were “OREO OREEEO,” which I’m sure pleased the Nabisco company no end.
The other day, an Oak Park neighbor asked Jessie about her summer activities.
“I’m in the Wizard of Oz for Bravo. I’m a Winkie,” she said. The neighbor grinned, exactly like I had. “That’s so cool!” she exclaimed, and burst into the song “O DEE O ODEEE O!” Jessie gave both adults the eye-roll.
The Wizard of Oz is about memory. It’s about remembering the past and facing the future, with Brains, with Heart, with Courage. The story is about finding your own destiny along the Yellow Brick Road.
Do yourself a favor. If you’ve never been to a Bravo performance at Brooks, go see The Wizard of Oz. The kids are also doing Throughly Modern Millie and Mystery at the Malt Shop. Anything Bravo does is worth seeing. Bravo shows look like professional productions. These kids could be onstage in the Loop, and charge a hundred dollars a seat.
Watching my daughter grow through her involvement in Team Bravo has been an unexpected delight. She can sing in front of an audience, she’s learned the intricate moves of stage dancing, and best of all she is developing a self-assured presence, which will serve her throughout the rest her life.
Forgive Proud Dad here. My daughter is a Winkie!