Thursday, May 14, 2009

Easedropping on Children - Scene 1


INTERIOR. VAN. DAY.

FG and BEN strapped into car seat. MAMA driving them to school. FG is playing with her pink Dora cell phone.

Ben: Frances, do you know what the big button is for on your phone?

FG: No

Ben: It's for taking pictures.
Funny, that's exactly what we used phones for when I was 5....taking pictures!!




Saturday, May 02, 2009

Where's My Goat?

Unlike the guys at Henge Productions, I know where my goat is. Or was.

Her name was Dodi - a boney-kneed, floppy earred, black and white beauty that 
I bottle fed. 

My father bought me a lot of pets: a pony, dogs, cats, gold fish, hamsters, a bull (ok, not a pet but I didn't eat Dan), rabbits and, one summer, an ant farm.  But there was something about Dodi.

When I was 11, my father bought her for me from Dr Norman in Whitbourne.  I don't remember asking for a goat, but I remember how cool it was to have her meet me at the lane after school. She was like a dog but better. Dodi could chase a ball across the grass, then stop for snack. We had the best trimmed lawn in Chapel Arm. 

But as she grew, I did too. And basketball practice, drama club and hanging out with boys meant I didn't always come home right after school. 

"No sense in having her barred in the barn, if you're not going to look after her," my father said. He later sold her to a man in Thornlea for $30.  I never saw her after.