I awoke in Shaunavon with a very special request. Deanna’s nephew had asked her teacher if I could come and teach his class art. Everything was in place pending my consent, which naturally I gave.
I was chauffeured over to Christ the King elementary school and welcomed to a group of 15 kids. In the limited time I had to prepare I came up with the idea of quickly going over a simple lesson on head proportion and then creating a pirate & her mascot. This quickly devolved into me simply drawing whatever the kids shouted out, mainly Batman, Spider-Man, a transformer, and suchlike. I did draw a few World Wildlife Federation of Justice characters. I managed to restrain myself from slipping in any anti-theistic innuendos but I did make a point of having the gamma-irradiated mutant cyborg parrot be environmentally friendly.
With the class consisting mainly of 12 boys and 3 girls I did make a point of having the pirate be female, and I talked extensively of Octopussycat‘s origin and powers.
I reviewed all the kids’ drawings and noticed some real talent. One kid was obsessed with drawing swords and he even had an earth sword with an earth at the tip of the blade, the pommel, and both ends of the crossguard. Another kid made his own Superman comic (don’t tell DC)! At the end of it all I got a Christ the King pen and bookmark.
A reprieve from the kids allowed some much-needed internet time but after that I drove the two boys (Layne had tap practice – more crying commenced) to the T-Rex Discovery Centre in Eastend. There they have “Scotty” – one of
the finest tyrannosaur skeletons in the world, plus various other exhibits including a brontothere, T-rex coprolite (fossilized poo), and ammonites (they’re all the rage in the Selandian age). I was very disappointed in the lady who gave us the tour because she not only mispronounced ‘ammonite’ but she also mistook a mosasaur fin for a plesiosaur fin. Perhaps I should take the $40k/year job posting there.
We stayed as late as they’d let us and got some souvenirs – I got a “COPROLITE HAPPENS” T-shirt. Who doesn’t love a good paleontology joke? We drove back to Shaunavon and enjoyed some pizza that Deanna’s sister made (brownies too) and then whiled away the evening painting more dinosaurs and watching The Simpsons.
More crying commenced when Layne’s bedtime came around, so I had to tuck them in. They’re so cute standing on their hind legs like a little Rory Calhoun.
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