A lamp, a hat, a book, hand salve and an alarm clock
My skin has been super-dry of late and the Farmer’s Friend hand salve with non-revolting fragrance at bedside is good, but greasy. I leave thumbprints on the pages of the book I’m reading, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
I’m just gearing up to see how Tim Burton’s vision will align with the printed word.
I did a school project on this book when I was in the fourth grade. I made a chocolate factory out of poster board and colored it with crayola markers. It was hinged to reveal all the stuff inside. In addition to the oral presentation and scale model, I handed out miniature Hershey bars with handmade wrappers that said WONKA, and in them I hid 5 pieces of foil “tickets” colored with aforementioned markers.
This may sound sweet, but there was a sinister side to it. I had put a small dot on those five bars and I was aware of who I was giving them to—I’m embarrassed to admit.
My fourth grade teacher surely knew about the rigging when my friend Heidi “won” an extra large Hershey bar with custom wrapper. (Giving tours of the posterboard factory wouldn’t have been much of a prize).
Perhaps I am wrong and this lapse of serendipity was transparent, but it makes me wonder about some things—about kids and innocence or the lack thereof. It makes me hope that I’ve grown well beyond such schemes. I also ponder what life would be like if I had some piece of that project left today, if even a photo.
Related tangent: A friend lent a digital camera to a young child at the studio the other day, and she went around and took the best photos. I can’t imagine how technology would factor into life as a kid. It’s got to be exciting, even though crayolas and poster board were pretty kick ass.