More Fan Memories of Oz

"For me, the best memory of watching the Wizard of Oz was a bit over a year and a half ago, when I was hospitalized. I hadn't been long at Navy boot camp when I got sick - even now I don't really know what it was I came down with, some sort of stomach virus, severe enough to warrant my being taken to the hospital. By random luck I ended up taken not to the on-base VA hospital, but instead a regular civilian one. So here I was, in terrible shape, alone, with everyone I cared about hundreds of miles away. After several hours of waiting in the ER to be seen, they finally take me up to my room. After even the short amount of time in boot camp, the last thing I expected was to end up in a room with a television set. Up to that point, from when I'd left, I'd been almost entirely cut off from the outside world. You don't realize how much you miss things like that until you experience it first hand. As I was flipping through the channels, the Wizard of Oz happened to be starting on one. It was like being hit with a slice of home, and despite the illness, I felt a great deal of comfort come over me as I watched. Here, at least, was something familiar. Like the feeling of an old friend you haven't seen in years. That was the point at which I realized that things would be alright; there would always be the wonderful small things to take pleasure in, no matter how bad things could seem."  - Sarah S.