The Oz character time forgot

We were in class the other day trying to teach kids about the 4 directional points on a compass.

The children had managed to come up with N stands for North and S stands for South. We were struggling to elicit a correct response for E and W. After some considerable time a child came up with East. So the teacher winked at me and asked the class how many children had seen The Wizard of Oz. Many hands were raised and we both thought this was a good sign.

So the teacher said: "The Wicked Witch of the East and the Wicked Witch of the ......."

Suddenly a child piped up, "I know! I know! The Wicked Witch of the East and the Wicked Witch of the Wales!"

After we recovered from laughing, we managed to explain that the answer we were actually going for was West, but well done for trying. Plus Wales is actually in the West, so she was partly right.

So there you have it. The character Baum never got around to writing about. The Wicked Witch of Wales, who was probably named Myfanwy or another name that would net you lots of points in scrabble. Well it would  if they allowed names, which they don't. But they should. 


I'll never look at Margaret Hamilton the same way again.