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| Yep. Back then, the brain . . . worked. |
The summer I was ten, my oldest sister,
Chris, volunteered to run a summer day camp for the kids in Milk
River.
We had a marvellous time.
Games. Treats. Crafts. Treats.
Contests. Treats. Activities. More treats.
I was ten.
Anything to do with food took priority.
Hmm. Still does in fact.
Moving on . . .
Chris put heart and soul into the
program.
There were no parameters laid out, so
she had to come up with the guidelines and curriculum herself.
She did a wonderful job.
Part way through the summer, she
decided that it would be fun if she got all of the kids involved in
performing a play.
And not just any play.
The Wizard of Oz.
A fairly ambitious undertaking for a
seventeen year old girl and her group of pre-teens.
First, she had to come up with a
script.
That was all right, because our family
had the story on an LP.
LP.
Go ahead. Google it. We'll wait . . .
And that's where I came in.
I had one talent as a child.
I could memorize.
If I listened to it once, I could
pretty much give a detailed description.
If I listened to it a lot?
I could recite it.
With voice inflections and sound
effects.
And that was what I did.
For three days, I recited and Chris
wrote.
The entire hour-and-a-half of 'The
Wizard of Oz'.
As it had been recorded.
We had our script . . .
I should mention here that we never got
to perform our play.
We simply ran out of time.
But we learned something important.
If you wanted anything remembered, let
Diane listen to it ad infinitum for a couple of days and it was there
forever.
Word perfect.
This skill stayed with me for a while.
In fact, I played the lead some years
later in 'The Rented Christmas', and memorized the entire play.
To the point that I served as the
prompter.
On stage.
My point in telling you all of this is
simply to reminisce.
And to lament.
I've been trying to figure out what I
just had for breakfast.
I can't - for the life of me –
remember.
Oh, for just a portion of that bygone
talent!
Sigh.
