Every Friday is devoted to a collection of things heard and seen over the past week that I find amusing, poignant, or embarrassing. I could probably cultivate these tidbits into separate posts, but then what would be the fun in that? Everybody likes lists.

Friday Fragments is my end-of-week list for your utter enjoyment.

Squirm

Griffin approached me with hands cupped together.

"I found a worm in the kitchen!"

He revealed his catch.

"That's a maggot, Griffin," I told him.

He dropped the maggot to the floor.

"Is it poisonous?"

Wheely Fast

At the birthday party for Paige (our granddaughter) at the Maine Wildlife Park, the skies opened up and the rains crashed down. Sitting on a picnic table beneath a shelter, we watched as people sprinted toward the park exit. One in particular was an amputee in a wheelchair.

"Look, he's going fast!" Griffin said.

"He's running to get to his car as fast as he can so he doesn't get soaked," Corrine told him.

"Well, he'd be running if he had legs."

Blocked

Griffin was told he needed a pair of socks on before putting on sneakers.

"Or your feet are gonna stink," Gabrielle said.

Moments later he came into the dining room and lifted his pant legs.

"I found socks.They block smells. They're smell-blocking socks."

Not Quite

At summer camp this week, Corrine and I had the pleasure of teaching drama to several area youth from first grade up to middle school. While many kids appreciated the sessions of face-painting, theater games, puppet-making, and related fun, there were some who were just too cool to be into it.

As any teacher can attest, when confronted with the perpetually contemptuous student, a break-through is always the equivalent to finding gold.

One such student, an incoming seventh grader who had remained sullen and disengaged most of the week, out of the blue raised his hand when his group had been asked if anyone had acted in a play before. I watched Corrine's eyes brighten and I could almost feel her pulse quicken. She had done it! She had gotten the coolest boy to engage.

"You have?" she asked him. "What show?"

"When's lunch?" the boy asked.

My Hero

Alyssa is a counselor at the same camp and was assisting a young boy with painting a set piece for a puppet show. I wandered in to check out the artwork, said hello to Alyssa, then left. As I was leaving the boy looked up to Alyssa and said "Is that your brother?"

Well...Perhaps Not

Same camp, different players:

One of the break-out sessions I was in charge of was called Writing for the Stage. The older kids (5th-graders and up) were taught the essentials of play writing, and were then separated into groups of five or six to create their own small play.

Milling around the tables to assist, I was privy to perhaps some of the most curious and engaging conversations of the week. The best exchange, however, came between Sandy and Rick*, clearly into the exercise but grouped with three other boys who would rather be having their molars pulled.

Rick: I don't like the direction this story is going
Sandy: Yeah. It's missing something
Rick: (To the three other participants in their group) Yeah. Do you guys notice that?

Contemptuous stares with the sound of crickets

Sandy: What's the matter?

More contemptuous stares with the sound of crickets, this time louder

Rick: We could have explosions. Do you want explosions?
Sandy: (Overly enthusiastic) That might work! Would that work?

Contemptuous yawns


*Their names were changed