My eldest daughter, Lilo the Magnificent, loves art. She draws all the time. Entertainment is always at hand provided she has paper and a drawing utensil of some sort. She draws even more than she reads, which is saying something.
She is currently in theater camp at the YMCA. She’s loving it, of course. Not only is the theater camp about drama, it’s about creative expression of all sorts. During free time, the kids can draw or do mold clay or something. Lilo likes to draw on the whiteboard.
She has a little crush on one of her camp counselors, Randy. So she decided to draw a full length portrait of Randy on the whiteboard.
She drew Randy stark nekkid.
This was a bit hard on Randy. The last thing you want, as a teen counselor, is a sweet little girl drawing you nekkid. For one thing, will someone think she is drawing from memory and have you stoned in the town square? For another, you know your friends are going to give you shit about it.
The other theater camp counselor, Mandy, took Lilo aside and explained that one really shouldn’t draw nudes on the white board. This caused Lilo distress, because she knew she had erred in some way, but couldn’t figure out from Mandy and Randy’s reactions if this was a bad mistake or a medium mess-up or what. They SAID it was no big deal, but there SEEMED to be subtext she wasn’t understanding.
So Mandy had a quick meeting with me right before I picked Lilo up, explaining the situation. I was amused, because it was kinda funny, but also a little concerned that Lilo might have seen a grown man nekkid … I needed to know context, stat. To the best of my knowledge the only nekkid males Lilo had ever seen were baby boys and little fellas under the age of five. I asked Mandy if it looked like Lilo was drawing an adult male, or if was still ‘boyish’.
Mandy, clearly torn between laughter and trying to be all serious and adult in front of a parent, said “Poor Randy had a tic-tac and two marbles.”
Obviously Lilo is unaware that boy junk grows up when they do, which is a relief for the present. She can find out the reality later, when she is significantly older … like 30 or something.
Everything is fine now. Lilo is no longer embarrassed, because we are all acting like it is no big deal and we have already forgotten it, so she thinks it is no big deal because we have already forgotten it. Nothing but peace and harmony as far as the eye can see.
She has no idea why I break into giggles every time I get a tic-tac out of my purse.
A tic-tac and two marbles. AND his name is Randy?? I’m sure I’ll stop laughing soon. Like tomorrow.
Snort.
Oh dear. She’s gonna run you ragged, isn’t she? Good for her.
In other news, I know a guy named Randy who married a woman named Mandy. By all accounts, he also has a tic tac and two marbles.
I wonder if Lilo’s next artistic endeavor will be to model Randy in clay? Are nudes more acceptable in clay than they are in white board sketches?
During Alec’s brief stint in daycare (3 mornings a week when he was 3 and 4), one of their little assignments was to draw a family portrait.
There we all were- Mommy, Daddy, grown siblings Erika and David, and Alec himself…all of us stark raving nekkid.
When questioned, his answer was, “What? Clothes are hard to draw”.
Oh, I so needed this laugh!