One such excursion was the annual Wizard of Oz Festival in Chesterton, Indiana.  How I loved that movie as a child!  If you missed the airing on TV, you had to wait another 12 months to see it as the movie was only shown once a year.  I hungered for a loving family and could not understand why Dorothy wanted to escape from home in the first place.  When she woke up from her dream, I tried to imagine how it would feel to wake up surrounded by loving faces.  The special effects of her dream were mesmerizing to my fanciful imagination, and silently I sang and danced along the yellow brick road with the movie characters.

I shared the discovery of this festival with Scott who responded with practical questions such as when and where.  It was about 75 miles from Goshen and would be a nice drive, not too far away.  I could see he was holding his excitement in check as I shared all the activities planned for the day!

We walked the streets of Chesterton and checked all the vendor tents and tables, tasted some good food, and enjoyed the assorted character costumes of adults and children walking around the festival grounds.  Most women were either wearing fancy black witch hats or pretty Glinda crowns.  Commercial vendors as well as home crafters lined the streets, and it was a lively atmosphere with loads of people in attendance.  We ducked into a gift shop and browsed until a sudden rain shower passed over and then ventured back outside.  Some of the vendors were very clever.  One that I remember in particular had painted vintage suitcases and added phrases from the movie.  Stacked in front of their booth was a neat display of yellow painted bricks with the words “There’s no place like home”, and I bought one for our front porch.

One of the older buildings on the main street had a display set up inside for pictures.  People were lined up waiting to get inside for a photo.  All of the characters from the movie had been recreated in concrete or plaster and were set up across the room so you could choose where you wanted to stand.  A photographer was available or you could use your own camera.

I persuaded Scott to let me take a picture of him, realizing he had probably reached his limit with that look in his eyes as he stepped behind a flying monkey.  We had stood in line for a while just for this moment.  I snapped a quick photo and thankfully it was a good picture.  The day was winding down and we were both ready to head home.  We made one final stop as we walked back towards our car.  A local store had a penny engraving machine set up outside their front door that would impress an image from the Chesterton Wizard of Oz Festival for 51 cents.  We pressed two pennies and carried them home with sweet memories.

A fun day with a wonderful man.