The following are scenes from the same restaurant but from differend people's perspectives. The purpose of the exercise was to see if others could guess the occupation of the POV character.
I now present to you Restaurant Scenes written/last updated on January 23, 2001.
Restaurant Scenes
1) The smell of steaks, hamburgers, pizzas and a variety of other scents tickled Lydia's nose as she and her daughter stepped inside Freddie's. The restaurant was crowded with young children and their parents, but then again, it always was. Lydia liked coming here to look at all the art on the walls. Some pieces were replicas of famous works of art by Da Vinci and Monet, while others were as simple as collections of bumper stickers and old advertisements. How beautiful.
"I think I see them over there," her daughter said and ran off toward a large room at the back of the restaurant. A dozen or so large yellow and green balloons lining the door her daughter was heading for. That had to be were the party was. Lydia followed after her daughter at a more leisurely pace, taking all the art that was around her.
She slowed as she came to a section were pictures drawn by children were being displayed. One stood out among the rest. It was a picture of a pony grazing in a field of grass with a rainbow stretched across the blue sky. The pony had been drawn in good proportion and the rainbow was properly blended. Lydia stopped long enough to look at the name plate under the picture. "Marian Smith, age 9." She's a good artist for her age, Lydia thought to herself. She continued toward the room, glancing at the rest of the children's pictures and then a few 50's advertisements. The nearer she got, the more laughter and chatter she could hear coming from the room. She wished she could be 12 again.
2) Freddie's was Sandy's favorite place. That's why she made her parents hold her Birthday party there. As they pulled into the parking lot she could see the funny shaped lettering that made up the restaurant's name. Her attention turned to the front door as a lady and her daughter walked inside.
"Momma, Momma, that's Rachel!" she squealed as she pointed to the now closed doors.
"Yes dear, just let me park and you can get out."
Sandy kept looking around the parking lot for anyone else she knew. Her mother made a sudden turn into a vacant parking spot and Sandy jumped out of the car before it came to a complete stop. She ran for the large front doors which had long S-curved handles running their length. Sandy liked the handles because they were bright yellow and green, her two favorite colors. She swung open the green handled door and walked in as if she owned the place. Her facade vanished immediately when she saw the room lined with green and yellow balloons. She briskly walked over to the lady in the black vest with multi-colored polka dots who was standing beside a podium.
"Is that for me?" she asked hopefully. The waitress asked her name and then confirmed that it was indeed for her. She didn't stay long enough to hear the waitress wish her a happy birthday.
3) Mark stood inside the doors of the most popular restaurant in town. He still couldn't understand how people could stand eating in here. The walls were lined with gaudy pictures and didn't even have a central theme. One glance at the rafters would tell anybody that the building wasn't completely stable. The woodwork was done hastily and poorly. The baseboard hadn't been puttied and in some places was only attached with glue and no nails. He reluctantly walked with his daughter to the back room where her friend Sandy was having a party.
They entered under the archway or yellow and green balloons. The room was larger than he had expected, at least 20 feet by 10. Two long tables were set up end to end in the center of the room with at least a dozen giggling girls playing tag around it. The parent were all in the far corner of the room giving their drink requests to the brown haired waiter who had somehow managed to keep a smile on his face. Mark could never have been a waiter. He would have lost his temper by now.
He worked his way around running girls and managed to make it to the adult's sanctuary. Oh, the torture we put ourselves through for our kids.
Answers:
1) Woman, mother, artist
2) Child, student
3) Man, carpenter
Copyright 2001, K.C. Ramey. Don't take this without my permission. you can read it but don't steal it as your own. If you want to use it as an example please e-mail me with what you want to use it for. sardogmom@yahoo.com