Somewhere over the rainbow way up high

There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby

Last night they were showing "The Wizard of Oz" on cable, and I got the boys to sit and watch it with me by allowing them to stay up late. They have seen the movie in bits and pieces but we've never actually sat and watched it from beginning to end, together.

Tim sprawled on the loveseat with Missy perched on the back, and Jeffrey and I snuggled on the couch with our bowl of microwave popcorn. I told them how when I was young they would only show this movie on TV once a year, and it was a big event because there wasn't very much good to watch back then. I described to them how my sisters and I would pile pillows on the floor in front of our large console TV that was low to the ground and make air-popped popcorn to watch it.

This movie has become so iconic that I've forgotten some of the little surprises in there when you're seeing it through fresh eyes. I'd smile when they would say things like:

"Isn't the wizard the same as the fortune teller?"
"Hey, we played that song 'Over the Rainbow' for our band concert in 7th grade!"
"Those are the ruby slippers we saw in the Smithsonian this summer!"
"Flying monkeys - cool!"
"The balloon got away! Now how's she going to get home?"

They were curious about how old the movie was, and it being close to the invention of color in films. I told them that came out in 1939.
"Guess who was born in 1940?"
"Grandma!" Tim figured that out first, and then,
"Hey, do you think this movie is the reason they named her Dorothy?"

I said that it probably was. I liked the idea of them imagining their Grandma as a baby, and thinking about their great-grandparents, who they've never met, naming her.

The whole movie is just so good, in so many ways, every time you see it, and it was wonderful seeing it with them, and of course reinforcing that idea that "there's no place like home."

Just as the movie was winding to its close, I told the boys to promise me that someday they will watch this movie with their own children, and remember the time that we sat here in the year 2009, sitting on our couches watching it on our flat-screen TV, controlling the commercials with the DVR remote, and streaming the sound through the stereo speakers.

Jeff said "Sure, but by then they will be watching it with strap-on virtual helmets or something! And chewing popcorn flavored gum!" We all took a moment to try to visualize what the future might hold. There's no way to know. The only thing for sure is that this movie will still be around.

Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue. And the dreams that you dare to dream Really do come true.