My Halloween Story: THE REAL WITCH

My Halloween story:
I was reminded of this story while watching a program about the Broadway Show on the subject of the Witch from the Wizard of Oz.

When I was living in Union New Jersey, my next door neighbor , Rick and I were very close friends. Rick ran a beauty parlor in Manhattan and had a very nice New York trade.. One of his customers happened to be Margaret Hamilton, yes, no kidding. The witch that scared the living daylights out of us from the Wizard of Oz. It turns out that she is a lovely old lady who goes in once a week to have her hair taken care of by my friend. Well, she happens to be sitting down next to another middle aged fan on this particular day and they get to chatting amiably.
Well, to make a long story short, the middle-aged woman promises to bring her grand-son in the following week to meet Ms. Hamilton and she is going to make it all a big surprise.

This is true, no kidding.

Sweet Margaret Hamilton agrees and that's how they part.

The following week, sure enough, the same middle aged woman comes back with her grand-child in tow who is no more than a toddler who may have just reached the age of understanding.

She takes him by the hand over to Ms. Hamilton, who is again having her hair done, and says to the little tyke who is smiling widely, "Remember, Joey, I told you that I had a surprise for you. "

And the little tyke beamed even wider.

She continued, " Remember that movie you saw, the Wizard of Oz?."

And the little wide-eyed child shook his head in the affirmative.

" Well, this lady was the witch in that movie..."

At that moment, Ms. Hamilton took her head out of the dryer and went to grab the little fella...

Well, say no more. One could see this little wide eyed tyke's expression go through the full range of emotions as he tore free from his grand-ma in real panic and sailed out of the store screaming at the top of his lungs.

It took the entire staff to catch up with him and bring him back like somebody facing their death....

True story.


Les Aaron