Here she was, Grandma (Joan) Tenner in all her glory! She told us that she was the understudy for the Wicked Witch of the West in the movie "The Wizard of Oz". It was only when we were old enough to add the years that we realized she would have only been ten years old at the time. However, Grandma Tenner would have made a great wicked witch. She had the cackle and the key lines from the movie down pat.
Wicked . . . she was not. A frustrated actress perhaps but, not wicked.
This picture showed how Joan Tenner walked into the Barnes and Noble in Lubbock, Texas during the October, Children's Hours. She introduced herself as a old retired witch with only spell to do good. Her warts did not grow as they use to this time of year and her broom no long would fly. "Halloween will always be my favorite time of year." Grandma Tenner would share. She loved to tell stories of the days when she would pop into Halloween parties to make magic pudding for the trick or treaters and dance around to celebrate Halloween at midnight with other witches, trolls, goblins and ghosts . . .
"All in good Halloween fun!" she would say!
She was not that wicked of a witch but although her bridge playing was pretty wicked. Her laugh was prefect and my eyes would light up when I heard it, a combination of excitement and playful fear makes a child's face expand.
The free spirit and independence of a witch is ingrained with in her as well as her family. Her great-grand daughter, born on a full moon, insists on being a witch at every chance she has. The maniacal laugh continues....