My Town Monday, the Oz Museum, Wamego, KS

As most of you probably know, I spent last week in Missouri and Kansas, doing school visits and speaking at the Kansas School Librarians' and Reading Council conference. (Don't quote me on the name of those two organizations; I could be off by a letter or a word or two!)

Thanks to my trusty Garmin (we're inseparable traveling companions!), I managed to find the Oz Museum (511 Lincoln St., Wamego, KS 66547-1633; 785.458.8686), on my way back to the Kansas City airport.

The Oz Museum in on the main drag of a little Kansas town. I didn't have to wait for many cars to pass before snapping this shot. The museum is small, but full of Wizard of Oz memoribilia. You can wander around or rent a self-guided audio tour for $2.00. The audio tour is also available for free right here on their website.

There were a few fun exhibits like this one, with excerpts from the book describing the scene.

A few bits of Oz trivia:
-In the book, the slippers were actually silver. Hollywood changed them to red so they'd show up more against the yellow of the Yellow Brick Road
-W.C. Fields was first choice to play the wizard. Unfortunately, disputes about money got in the way.
-Judy Garland so fell in love with Toto that she offered to buy him.


You know you're back in California when you can buy sushi by the pizza pan!

Mr. Summy and the fam were glad to have me home. Some of them (Mr. Summy, Child #4) expressed this more enthusiastically than others (the teens). :) However, everyone was pleased to get a fun Oz t-shirt with such slogans as:
-Dear Dorothy: Hate Oz, took the slippers, find your own way home. ~Toto
-Don't make me break out the flying monkeys.
-The flying monkeys ate my homework.

Please check out the links to the other My Town Monday posts on the official My Town Monday blog.