The Wizard of Oz Diaries - Chapter 1

When I was a kid, I loved watching The Wizard of Oz. Anytime it would come on TV, our Mom would let us know and we would sit around and watch it in marvel. My Mom gave me the book when I was a kid (I always had my nose in a book while I was growing up). I just loved the story as much as the movie. It's one of mine and Jaidy's favorite movies, and now with the cool invention of DVD's, and home theaters, we can watch it anytime we want to.

We watched it this year on my birthday. It was her idea, because she knows it's one of Mommy's favorites. This is a long story leading up to how I played this game at Jeff E's house called, "Fine, we don't get to watch the Wizard of Oz, then We are going to Play The Wizard of Oz !" and how I won a million dollar bet on my 23rd birthday in 1989. Keep in mind that I went head to head with the biggest smart ass I have ever met in my life, and I won !!

By the time you are finished reading this story, you will find out who all of the Character's are in The Wizard of Oz. Some people can play more than one character, and I got to play 3 of them: The Wizard of Oz, Glinda The Good Witch of the North, and Dorothy. Jeff had to guess who I wanted to be all night long during this game I started playing with him on the 5th of July, 1989 when our 4th of July party was winding down.

I got even with Jeff-E big time for "trying" to play a silly little joke on me, and this will take me a long long time to tell this story. Try to guess as you are reading it who The Wicked Witch of the West is, who the Dorothy's are, who the Scarecrow and the Tin Man are, etc.... Especially try to figure out who The Horse of Different Colors is. It will amaze you completely.

Dorothy has the Ruby slippers which symbolize the blood of Christ, and eventually she gets to go home which is what I did when I moved back to Nebraska at the end of the story. The Wizard of Oz goes back home to Omaha (at the end of the movie it says Omaha State Fair on his balloon). The Good Witch of the North symbolizes God who gives Dorothy the knowledge about how to get home. When the Wicked Witch of the East had the Ruby Slippers, that symbolizes Christ's Death. When the house dropped on the Wicked Witch of the East and she died, the Ruby Slippers end up on Dorothy's feet, meaning she has Christ's blood & the Holy Spirit so she is saved, but she has to wander around in the desert, before she can get to the promised land. This is why I was playing all three characters.

This is your basic story of good vs. evil just like Star Wars and a ton of other cool movies I just love. So here goes:

CHAPTER I - THE EAST SIDE AND THE COWARDLY LION

In 1985, I moved from Kearney, NE out to California to live with my brother George & my sister in law Kathie in the Mojave Desert. The wind was terrible out there, but the mountains were breathtaking. Like D.A. once told me, the wind didn't stop for over 100 days straight. When I first arrived, I was the most innocent girl in the entire world. I was definately a Christian. On my 19th birthday, Amy Grant was playing in LA, but the tickets were sold out, and I didn't get to go.

I moved to California so I could goto college out there. Kearney State College just cost too much money. At that time, Jr. college in California was only $50 a semester + cost of books. I took some courses out there while I was working for Domino's Pizza.

I started out as a driver in the East Side Store. We had 3 stores when I first started (East Side, West Side, and Palmdale) all owned by a man named Jeff.
I had worked as a phone girl at a Domino's Pizza while I was at Kearney State College in Kearney, NE - so I knew how to answer the phones and take orders. Being a driver was a blast. My Manager of the store was Stevie. The Managers in Training at the time were Troy, Rich, and Francis.

I always liked working for Troy, because although he was a smart ass, he was really cool. After work sometimes, I would go over to Troy & Rich's house to watch the Laker games with Troy. Troy, Rich, and Francis all turned me onto some really cool music.

If I ever said, "Troy, I need some change." He would reply, "People in Hell need Ice Water." To this I would say, "Yes Troy, I imagine they do, but I really do need some change." Troy was my favorite, because he was good and kind to women, even though he was a smart ass. He used to always tell me, "Michelle if I didn't have a girlfriend, I would date you, because you are always so sweet."

These guys were terrible jokesters, and they all started this sick joke called Green Olives. Whenever a girl would come into the store, one of the guys would yell out, "Green Olives." I knew something was up, but Troy never said it. Troy would get really pissed, but I didn't know why. It would take me a couple of years later to find out what the joke was all about, and how Troy protected me completely from some really sick s***. I probably should have married Troy thinking back on all of it now.

I moved from a night shift driver to a day shift driver. I worked with Tom and Mary. Tom was your typical nerd, but you just had to love the guy. He had a terrible crush on me, and I just wasn't interested in him. He used to say to me, "Michewe, I weally weally wike you awot." No joke, he really talked like this. He had nerdy glasses, and he drove a chevette. He used to say, "Michewe, are you going over to Troy's house tonight to watch the Waker game ?" I would say yes & he would quickly invite himself over to watch it with us.

I was good friends with a guy named Gary (my ex boyfriend) at the time. Gary's Dad was is now former head of homicide in LA and retired (but at the time he was head of homicide & kind of like my Dad out in California). I was very close to Gary's entire family, but I also had a great relationship with Howard. We (meaning Gary & I) didn't work out as boyfriend & girlfriend - but I would stay over at his place just as friends when I went out to the desert to visit him, because it was 15 miles from town & too far to drive back home. I was living with my brother and sister in law.

One time Tom came over to our house & my sister in law Kathie told him, "Tom - Michelle isn't home and she went to Gary's so I doubt she is coming back tonight." Tom told her, "Ya, but the Waker's are on tonight - so I know Michewe is going to come home & watch it." He wouldn't leave, and he talked Kathie's ear off until 10pm when she finally told him she had to goto bed. He kept telling her, "I weally, weally wike Michewe awot !!"

I told Tom the next time I saw him, he couldn't do that stuff to me, and if he wanted to watch the Laker's then he had to ask me first, and he couldn't just come over to my house unannounced and bother my sister in law like that. I told him Tom, I am just your friend ok ?

One day Rich and I were at work, and Tom decided to play a joke on me. He was hiding in the Walk In Refrigerator (Walk In as we called it). He stopped at the store & got a pie tin & filled it with whipped cream. I went to get some food out of the Walk in for Rich, and Tom came charging out & tried to hit me in the face with the whipped cream. He missed & got some of it on my face, but it wasn't too bad. Rich said, "Michelle let's get even with Tom." He called up Troy and Francis to tell them what Tom did to me. He told me he knew they would be hungry, and that he was going to make them a pizza & have Tom deliver it to them.

Troy and Francis got on top of the roof of the house they were at (they were at a friends house & Tom didn't know the address). When Tom showed up, one of them doused him with a bucket of water, and the other one got him with a bucket of flour. Tom dropped the pizza and ran. He went home and took a shower and changed before he came back to work. He said, "Michewe I'm sorry I hit you with the whipped cream but I'm not going to pway any more jokes on you. You win !!"

Francis used to get the ladder out & tie a bucket of water to a rope & set the water on the ladder & attatch the rope to the back door. He got me time and time again with the water. No matter what any of us did, we could never get even with him. One day he was talking on the phone, and I just took a bucket of water & snuck up on him and doused him good. I told him, "Now I finally got you, and I got you good !!" He just laughed, and everyone laughed, because no one could ever get him.

Mary, the other dayshift driver was mean and sneaky. She was Stevie's sister, and she would always sleeze mine and Tom's pizzas (which meant when it was our turn for the next delivery, she would grab the pizza & take off with it herself). Troy caught her & made her do dishes for the rest of the day while Tom & I took all of the runs. Troy was the best !!

I never made fun of Mary or Tom whatsoever, but Mary had a huge problem with her weight. She eventually lost a bunch of it from what I heard. One night Francis sent me to Burger King to get all of us dinner. I took everyone's orders. Mary wanted a Whopper with cheese. She ran out to my car when no one was looking and handed me a dollar. She said make mine a double Whopper with cheese ok ? I thought this was kind of funny. I didn't tell anyone what she said, because I was sensitive to her feelings & knew people would tease her for this. She even told me, "Michelle, you aren't going to tell anyone I want a double, are you ?" I said, "Mary, your secret is safe with me & I won't tell. It's ok - I'm not going to make fun of you, ok ?" She was relieved, and she and I sort of became friends after this, until the day she really did it to me.

On Valentine's day in 1986, it rained and it was on a Friday. It got so darn busy, that Mary and Tom and I got to stay until after 8pm. Mary was competing with me to see who could break the store record for the driver with the most pizzas delivered. Although she was Steve's sister, he was very fair. She went over to count how many pizzas I had delivered that day. I asked her what she was doing? She said, "Oh nothing." I knew that was a lie.

She and I both got back to the store from our previous runs, and she was up first until she realized I was going to get a 10 pizza run out to Lockheed. She told Stevie it was my turn, and I couldn't believe she would actually do this, until I figured out what she was up to. Stevie was trying to be fair, but Mary kept saying Michelle you take it.

Stevie was fair, but I just told him to let her have the 10 pizza run out to Lockheed. She wanted to beat the store record for driver with most pizzas delivered and she wanted it so she could beat me. Steve told her no way, what's fair is fair. I got the 10 pie run and finished the day with 52 pizzas delivered which beat the store record. I got a $15 tip from Lockheed, and made close to $200 in tips that day.

Everyday after work, Mary would hound me to tell her how much money I made in tips, and I would tell her it didn't matter. She was so competetive, and I didn't like that behavior. After all I was a Christian, and I was sweet, but stood my ground when it came to things like that.

Mary was very lazy, and she would always try to get out of prepping the food and cleaning the stores. She wouldn't touch a dish to save her soul, and Tom and I did most of the work. Troy always caught her, and he made her work hard when she tried pulling her stunts. I can still imagine her half out of breath scrubbing the baseboards, those chubby cheeks a puffing away.

Rich was an excellent driver before he became an MIT, and he trained me how to be great at it. Troy taught me how to make pizzas, and Francis taught me how to spin dough. I got so good at it that eventually I could backspin it.

I had a friend named Staycee who was a phone girl, and I just adored her. Staycee was the most fun person ever.

I moved from the East Side store over to the new store in Quartz Hill when it opened to get away from Tom, because he wouldn't take the hint. I was especially glad to get away from Mary. A leopard rarely ever changes it's spots, and she never did change. Stevie used to always say, grab some clues and get the hint, but Tom and Mary never did.

Johnny was the manager of Quartz Hill. He was a lot of fun, but he let everyone get away with a lot of crap. He and I got along pretty good for the most part, and he let me make pizzas all of the time. I had a friend named Todd B. who worked over at Carl's Jr. I told him he should come be a driver at Quartz Hill, so he did. He and I both wanted to get into management, but Johnny wouldn't back me up. The day that Todd got a management position, I was pretty upset. After all, I was the one who encouraged him to apply.

He and Johnny became buddy buddy, and Johnny helped him get into management and not me. Todd was moved over to the Palmdale store. I think it was the first time in my life that I realized how unfairly women could be treated in the workplace.

Jim Brown was the manager of the Westside store, and I hated this guy more than anything in the world for reasons I will never blog about. Now I know that hate is a really strong word, but I just couldn't stand this guy for reasons only my dearest friends know about.

He had been a manager for over a year, and Jeff E. helped him franchise down in Hesperia. I was so glad that Jim and his girlfriend Charlene moved away. They ruined my Christmas one year, and then Jim ruined my Birthday another, and that's all I will blog about those two creeps.

Johnny moved from Quartz Hill to take over the Westside store, and Little Paul moved from Ohio at Thanksgiving time in 1986 to take over Quartz Hill. Little Paul was one of the best friends I ever had in my life. I told him I wanted to get into management, so he told Jeff and his best friend and Supervisor Dan that he should make me an M.I.T. (manager in training). Dan finally agreed and I got sent over to Palmdale to work for Nayo (pronounced Nie-o).

Jeff, Paul and Dan were all from Ohio. They used to all be DJ's at a bar called The crazy mama's and had all worked at Domino's together while they were in college. Jeff went to Law School out in Ohio, but he left to franchise in our area which was the fastest growing area in the country. Jeff was an incredibly intellegent man. Jeff and Dan were best friends. Jeff always called Dan The Cowardly Lion. He really was The Cowardly Lion until I gave him the courage he needed during our game night in 1989. He even looked like The Cowardly Lion !!

Dan had the funniest message on his answering machine to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies:

Come and listen to a story about a man named Dan
4 Mit's we were nearly half dead
Then one day he was itemizing food
and up from the pits came a bubbling crude

Pizza sauce that is, Red Gold, Ohio tea

Well the first thing you know, Old Jeff's a Millionaire
Jeff said, "Dan let's move away from here"
He said California is the place we ought to be
So we loaded up the Station Wagon and moved to Luxury

Domino's Pizza, Swimming Pools, Millionaires
Y'all call back now ya hear ??