a production in the pool

today my mum and i did what she calls the "route march" through the neighborhood. It's a great, flat walk. Unfortunately it is 80 degrees and humid and I'm not used to humid weather over 60 degrees and foggy. I know I shouldn't be complaining as I have friends freezing their backsides across the country and across the pond (aka Atlantic Ocean). I am trying to commit to memory what the warmth feels like as in just over a week I must abandon the comforts of the tree house (sigh) and come back to my real life.

Anyway, Mum and I rewarded ourselves for doing our walk with a wander to the club for lunch, a cocktail and a bit of sun by the seaside. We found a table poolside. As my Mum and I enjoyed our lunch and some sun I listened to a gaggle of pre-teen girls play in the pool.

I remember playing the 'let's create a movie' game. One of us (not me) was usually in charge and would attempt to share her vision for the play or movie we were making in the pool. Usually a damsel in distress or some fantastic splashy number. But it was always the same we were acting out another girl's ("the director") vision. So in this play/movie the director tells the others there needs to be a dolphin and shark and they vie for parts practicing their dance-like splashing. The routine is semi-set and the director realizes that someone needs to be the narrator. Well the shark and dolphin pipe up that they have their parts and someone else says i don't want to be the narrator, I'm the producer.

Now, as an adult who has seen her fair share of movies and did theatre in college, I'm still not exactly sure what a producer is or what they do other than be part of the folks who collect the Oscar statue when a movie wins. I'm amazed that there was one of the girls who knew she didn't want to be in the production she wanted to produce it. So the production at the pool (which I missed as I needed to head to some shade before I burst into flame) had a director, a producer, a shark, and a dolphin and was missing a narrator...

I keep reading that kids are growing up fast and are light years ahead of where some of us were at their age... but I'm mostly amazed and curious where this young girl heard someone talking enough about producing a production that she knew she was better off being the producer of the pool play than the narrator... amazing what kids hear these days.

Guess I don't need to worry about my language down at the pool anymore.