Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Craft (as in handcraft) (02/08/07)
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TITLE: Dogzilla | Previous Challenge Entry
By Scott Thomas
02/15/07 -
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“No! I don't wanna!” She defiantly stuck her thumb in her mouth, belying her precocious.
“Listen, you need to write about your field trip to the museum.”
“I don't wanna write. I wanna make a movie about Dogzilla!” Charlie just sighed. His wife had often joked about their clumsy dog, Lucky, who wreaked havoc on the household with his rambunctious tail and predisposition to leap on people.
Charlie rested his head on his hand and thought. I guess it doesn't really matter what she writes about, as long as she writes something.
“Okay, What if you write the story for the movie, so that we know how to act it out?”
Cindy's eyes widened with an obvious look of realization. She quickly ran over to the drawer to get a piece of paper and pencil. “How do you spell 'Dogzilla' Daddy?”
Pleased that his parenting skills were proving effective, Charlie slowly spelled the name for her. They spent the next thirty minutes drafting her story. When they finished, they had enough to fill a whole page, more than what was needed for the writing assignment.
“Now let's make the movie!” Cindy exclaimed. “Lucky can be Dogzilla.” She paused a moment. “Hmmm, we're gonna need to make the town first.”
“Tomorrow, little Miss Spielberg” replied Charlie, as he shuffled his daughter off to bed. “Its getting late.”
The following morning, Charlie awoke hearing the familiar humming of his wife. She only did that when she was immersed in one of her crafts. What is now? Another life-sized stuffed animal for the kids room in Sunday School? Charlie bemoaned the thought, yet he was always impressed by her resourcefulness.
He strolled into the living room and found Mrs. MacGyver among a pile of scrap foam cushioning, construction paper, and straight pins. The foam pieces were cut into rectangles of various sizes. A large cardboard box covered the coffee table in the center of the room.
“Whadda ya think of our movie set Daddy?” Cindy was flitting about and chattering all the while trying to keep up with her mother.
Amused at the scene, Charlie laughed to himself. “Why its just great, sweetie.” Charlie knelt down and joined into what soon became a family craft. He wrapped one of the foam rectangles with brick-red paper to serve as the town hall building.
As Charlie lined the buildings up side-by-side, a park scene from an old movie filled his head. How could we craft a park for the set? Immediately the answer came to him, and he ran up to the attic on a frantic mission. Charlie dug through the clutter that 'Momzilla' had wreaked, making his way to a dark corner where his childhood train set lay forgotten until now. Rummaging through the tattered box, Charlie pulled out a couple of the platform pieces, complete with train tracks, roads, and grassy fields. There were also props for the landscape; plastic green trees, road signs, even little toy houses. Perfect! Charlie hopped back down the stairs carrying his surprise addition to the movie set.
He carefully placed one of the platform pieces in front of the town hall and the ice cream shoppe, instantly creating a quaint little village square, complete with gazebo.
“Wow!” Cindy's jaw hung open, as if trying to swallow the whole model. ”Oh Daddy, you're wonderful! This is perfect! Thank you Daddy!”
All three of them busied themselves with putting up the props. Mrs. MacGyver crafting roofs, doors and windows for the storefronts. Cindy kept “oohing and awing” ...it seemed like Christmas again. After putting all the props in place, Cindy disappeared downstairs, soon returning with a handful of little action figures and toy soldiers.
“Can I have some alone-time to play?” Her blue eyes radiated with joy and a toothless grin spread across her face. Even though Charlie had the camera already set up, there was no way he could refuse her.
“Of course, sweetie. Go ahead.” Charlie knew that Cindy would spend hours by herself playing with the “new” toy set. So the filming of “Dogzilla: The Movie” was postponed for another day.
Charlie paused before exiting stage right. Cindy was already immersed in her imaginary world, a world brought to life with a family craft.
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Was a little confused by the mix of "Charlie" with "Mrs. McGyver"--were they both the parents? Wondered why they were referred to by different titles(?).
Loved the offbeat, colorful title of this story--it grabbed me right away. Great job!