Roberta Writes – Esther Chilton’s writing prompt ‘Films’ #shadormaprose #poetry

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Esther’s writing prompt this week is Films. I’ve stayed with my childhood memories and written two shadorma prose pieces for the prompt. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2024/07/31/writing-prompts-25/

Sleeping Beauty Symphony

When I was a little girl of six years old, I loved to dress up. I was never Robbie. I was Peach-Blossom, the Native American Princess, or Willow, the Irish tree spirit, but most often, I was Aurora, the beautiful princess from Sleeping Beauty.

I had the record of Sleeping Beauty with a frightening picture of Maleficent, the evil fairy and self proclaimed ‘Mistress of All Evil’, on the front cover in the form of a fire breathing dragon. The back cover featured animated pictures of golden haired Aurora and the three good fairies. How this story captured my imagination. I hadn’t seen the film, but I listened to that record over and over again. I danced and sang and became Aurora.

At school, I taught my friends about Sleeping Beauty and Aurora. I made up a play of the story, based on the record. Each of my friends had a starring role but I was Aurora. My teacher came across us practicing this play in the school playground one day and decided we should perform it for the whole class.

My patient father, quite used to his dreamy daughter, brought our old record player and the record to school and set it up for the performance of the play. My mom sewed me a dress from fine lemon fabric with an underskirt. My friends and I performed the play and I was Aurora in my beautiful, floaty dress. It was a magnificent performance that I’ve never forgotten.

Little girl

Bewitched by music

Enthralled by

Good fairies

Always dancing and singing

Happy enchantment

Years later I saw the film and it thrilled me. It is still one of my favourite Disney movies.

This is my favourite scene from the movie:

Battlestar Galactica was not a film, it was a TV series. Not an exact fit for Esther prompt, but close enough in my opinion.

Battlestar Galactica Brides

When I was a little girl of six years old, I had a best friend named Susan. Susan was the daughter of one of the teachers at my school. The pair of us loved Battlestar Galactica, a TV series about human refugees whose home planet had been destroyed by evil Cylons and who were trying to find the legendary but unknown planet Earth.

Susan and I played Battlestar Galactica for months. I created ‘walkie talkies’ for both of us out of small Liquifruit boxes. The straw was the antennae. We pulled it up when we were talking and pushed it down again when we were finished. I wrote numbers on cut-to-size pieces of paper which I pasted onto the front of the boxes. These were the push buttons for dialing people. In my story, Captain Apollo was my boyfriend and Lieutenant Starbuck was Susan’s sweetheart.

One day, we decided we should stage a double wedding. We planned for this momentous occasion for weeks. Somewhere, we got hold of some tulle to fashion into veils and we both had white dresses. We picked fresh flowers from the garden for our hair and bouquets.

I’ve never forgotten that ‘wedding’ or the liquifruit ‘walkie talkies’ I made, although I can’t remember much about the show.

First wedding

In white with flowers

Girl children

Adherring

To traditional ideas

How life has changed

I don’t have pictures of these events, but this is a picture of TC on our wedding day:

Picture caption: TC and I on our wedding day
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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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63 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – Esther Chilton’s writing prompt ‘Films’ #shadormaprose #poetry”

  2. What lovely childhood memories you have, Robbie. Those Disney films kept me enthralled too and my daughter was a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica so I’m familiar with the characters. And your dreams came true- you found your handsome prince and became a beautiful bride.

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  3. OMG! We were so similar as children. My aunt and I would do the same things. We were always acting out scenes from stories or movies, or making up our own. How great that the teacher let you perform in front of the class. Great memories.

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  8. Such beautiful memories. That’s so cool that your teacher encouraged you and let you and your friends perform the play.

    My sister and I and my children had similar type imaginative play.

    You were a beautiful bride, Robbie! Lovely photo. 💙

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    1. Hi Annette, that is wonderful to know. I remember my school doing a performance of The Little Mermaid. I was very young so my class were the mermaid friends. I never got to keep the costume my mother made for me. That is what stands out in my mind about that memory.

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  21. Such wonderful memories, Robbie. Childhood friendships and experiences stay with us decades later. And what a beautiful wedding phot – you both look like movie stars 😎

    Your haircut reminds me of mine when I got married 🙂

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  24. Robbie, this is precious! Your childhood stories are delightful, and you were lucky to have a grand finale performance. Hats off to your wonderful parents.

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