I love seeing the Yellow Brick Road start under Dorothy's feet and spiral out and out. Not the usual characteristics of a labyrinth, but I can see how it is one. The Wizard of Oz is an example of writing or crafting a story that means more/different things than what the author intended. We don't read it to examine the pros and cons of the silver standard. Before I had any kind of academic relationship with folklore, mythology, or storytelling, I was beginning to feel as though every enduring story was either a coming-of-age story, with a solo journey toward identity, or a quest story where the hero meets dozens of people with varied strengths and weaknesses and they work together to overcome obstacles and get HOME. I used the examples of Oedipus (or Hamlet) and Odysseus. If I needed something newer, I'd refer to The Graduate and The Wizard of Oz.

When I was a kid, my parents read to me at bedtime from story books. It wasn't long until I could do my own reading, but my dad had a few stories he'd tell me out loud when we weren't near a book. One was "The Three Old Birds," about three old birds who lived in a garbage dump and enjoyed eating leftover spaghetti and other tasty refuse all day. I can't remember the details any more, but I think the local government closed the dump and the birds were devastated, but then they learned there was a new garbage dump, and they moved there and were very happy, eating leftover spaghetti and other tasty refuse all day. Years later, I learned that my dad had made that story up. I was taken aback. I didn't know that kind of thing went on. But I loved him and the story even more when I realized he'd made it just for me. When you mentioned learning that your beloved Dutch stories were by Washington Irving, it made me think of it. -- Julie Peterson

My mom collected miniature guns, so this recollection felt very fresh and simultaneously nostalgic to me. I could see you tearing through the house (wow, you really, really loved Show and Tell), feel the exertion of holding up the trunk lid. Do you remember what/how you told, back then at school, when you took the tiny gun in? -- Julie Peterson