DOROTHY SHOES

Pleasant smiles. Quiet dinners at good restaurants. Pictured toasting the evening away. "Lovely" couple. They had retired to New Mexico where she had continued working as a speech pathologist. But only they knew, when they stepped out into the evening and returned home, behind their bedroom door, hung a treasure among treasures. Their little secret for twenty-two years? Goodnight dear. Goodnight honey. Good night "Woman-Ochre". Goodnight Willem deKooning. Sleep tight $160 million dollars.*

Chances are most of us would think the painting was (?) interesting and maybe of some value. But if the stolen pair of Ruby Slippers which skipped down the yellow brick road were sitting nearby on a dresser, we might shriek. The slippers may have a value of $5 million at auction, according to The Washington Post. To most of us, the monetary value doesn't compare to the representation of having a heart, having intelligence and possessing bravery, along with a loving family.

Without an alarm or fingerprint, the sequined shoes were stolen in the middle of the night from The Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. A smash and grab, leaving one sequin behind as evidence.* A pair of red sequined shoes does stand out. Only millions of people have watched Dorothy slide her size 6 1/2  into the red shimmering shoes, standing in the new technicolor world of Oz. What is the drive to risk the punishment for putting the shoes in a plastic shoebox and tipping it up onto a shelf? Or into a shoebox marked for an ugly pair of orthopedic shoes? A jealous witch?

Labor of love

My father worked in retail. One day a family came into his office for help. The parents had brought in their very little daughter. After leaving the store, they discovered she was holding onto a tiny purse. They told her she must bring it back to the store. My father gently asked the little girl why she took the purse. "Because I wuv it," she said, with her eyes watering.

I have found the Dorothy shoes, as we call them. Almost to three, Cate had double pneumonia with high fever. Even after the worse of it, she languished on the sofa for what seemed a very long time. My baby was very sick. And the most requested and best received, The Wizard of Oz video. On TV at least once a day, sometimes twice a day. Seriously.

We had one sofa, one living room and one television. She learned every word, verbatim. We sang to the music. Our house was very small. There was no place to hide from the Lollipop Gang.

When Cate got sick, my mother came for a few days and helped around the house, cooking her famous Worcestershire meat patties, pear salad, green beans and mashed potatoes or salmon croquettes, LeSeur peas, rice and one roll.

With Cate's third birthday coming up, I was ambitious and decided to make a pair of Ruby Red Slippers. This was before Pinterest. I bought red lace-up tennis shoes made in the USA. Sequins, red beads, red sparkling spray paint and red grosgrain ribbon. And a big fat thimble and a sharp needle. I hid everything in a shoebox and only worked on them in my bedroom after her bedtime. It was impossible to totally cover the shoes in sequins. The canvas was stiff as a board. But I prevailed.

Glinda, The Good Witch left the sparkly shoes in Cate's bedroom on her birthday morning, along with a note! Cate loved her shoes from Glinda.

Today, authorities announced the stolen pair of Ruby Slippers has been found after an undercover operation involving the FBI. They have the slippers but not the culprit.

Can love be in a house where the mind of an artist is held captive behind a bedroom door?

What about a place where possession is never enough, wrapped in the fear of discovery?

Or a love of immediacy, the innocent swooning for something beautiful but no clue of responsibility or the cost of blindlove?

Dorothy was right. Or as Cate said, "Grannie, there's no place like home."


"It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home."
    Edgar Albert Guest




Sources:   CNN September 4, 2018/ The Washington Post August 3, 2018


WHOOPS. Correction. My post, Swept Away - In Remembrance, suffered a little set-back. I do try to carefully edit before publishing. Unfortunately, I must have been called away for chocolate or knitting. My apologies. Next time, feel free to send me an email and let me know I've messed up.