Clue #3:
This blue and white gingham dress. And long braids.
When I was little, I dreamed of being Dorothy. And when one of the local community theaters where I often performed (to "cure" my shyness... brought on by my deafness) finally did a version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I choked at the audition, swallowed my song. Despite having long brown hair, despite being almost my adult height of 5'7" already, I was cast as a Munchkin.
A male Munchkin. One of the Lollipop Guild.
The costume designer gave me my long red and blue striped stockings to keep after the play, for consolation.
But I dressed as Dorothy for Halloween in seventh grade.
My mother sewed me the blue and white checked bib dress. I had a white shirt beneath with puffed sleeves, white tights. I wore the braids, I carried the basket, complete with a stuffed animal of a little black dog like Toto (my real dog at home was named Toto, after the book).
But I didn't wear the ruby (or silver, depending on your source) slippers. I wore, as my friend Brad, who went as a plague victim with a black hooded robe and wore pancake mix for plague makeup--as my friend reminded me: I wore sensible white sneakers. Keds.
When my friend asked me where my sparkly, magic slippers were--I had no memory of this until he told me, then it all came back--I said: I left them at home. I have gym class today.
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Just a reminder, the Voyager Valentines Contest, featuring several of my writer friends and their novels, has been extended to March 1. Click on the post and leave a comment to win free books, including an advanced copy of SUPERVISION, and other prizes, like chocolate and paintings.