Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Sunday, I had some work in the morning, but then I suggested that we take our dog, Una, and go to the Ridley Creek State Park to enjoy some time outdoors.

We stopped at the Wawa on the way there to pick up some sandwiches, Baked Lays and drinks so that we could make a picnic of it.

The park wasn't nearly as crowded as I'd expected. I guess the big day was Saturday.

We had no trouble finding a picnic table to eat our sandwiches. Una was being very good. She barked a little at first, but then drank some water and waited patiently for a couple bites of my sandwich. Then we ran a couple things back to the car and began our walk.

When we got to the end of the trail, we saw a yellow sign on the bulletin board, saying that, if a state budgetary impasse wasn't resolved, the park would close as of sunset that night. We were both shocked, because this was the first we'd heard of it.

When we got to the main path, an asphalt road frequented by dog walkers, joggers and cyclists, we had a good time, joking around. Even though it was sort of a warm day, once we got into the shade it was a lot nicer. Una enjoyed sampling the various types of vegetation that lined the past. She's a fan of grass.

I'd say that we saw about half as many people as we encountered the last time we came, but that might have been a Saturday. Una, strangely, was more interested in the grass than in greeting other dogs. Although we passed several who strained at their leashes, trying to get a sniff of her. She just walked by, nonchalant, playing hard to get.

About half an hour into our walk, we turned around and started back. We wanted to be sure that The Gryphon would have enough time to make it to his weekly meeting of Philadelphia Area Game Enthusiasts (PAGE).

Since I hadn't had any pictures of me taken at his party, I had The Gryphon take one of me and Una. It didn't turn out to be terribly flattering, mostly because I had him take it while I was seated on a bench. Not a good look when you're wearing a form-fitting shirt, even if you do remember to suck in your gut.

I did, however, get a nice picture of Una, who is always photogenic.

As we were leaving, The Gryphon said, "Oh, NBC 10 is here," and pointed to a white news van in the parking lot. We figured they must be working on a story about the proposed shut-down of the park.

Then I noticed a reporter interviewing people. We watched them film a family as they played Frisbee and interview the adults.

The reporter started marching towards me. I smiled at him, and asked him if he was doing a story on the budget impasse. He said yes and asked if he could speak to us for a couple minutes.

I always stop and help reporters with their stories, and I've had this happen a number of times in the past. I've appeared in numerous student projects at Penn State, was quoted in the Daily Collegian and in a number of other local newspapers. Anyone who's walking around with a microphone seems to want to interview me.

Una immediately went up to the camera guy and started sniffing him. The reporter said, "She likes him."

"She likes everyone," I said. She actually was very good for us during the interview, sitting at my side quietly.

They set up a shot and asked us to step into the sun for better lighting. Then, after first getting our names and hometowns and the correct spellings, they asked us some questions. I said that I hadn't known about the shut-down until that day, that we like to come out to the park with our dog and enjoy the outdoors. I said I thought it was horrible for families and people, and everyone.

As I spoke, I felt like I was rambling and wondered if they could possibly use it for their story. The Gryphon said he had a similar feeling as they asked him a couple questions.

After a couple questions, they asked us which way we were heading. We said we were heading for our car, and they said to just walk as if they weren't there. The camera guy shot some footage of us walking. Una's interest in the camera continued, which was good, because the camera guy got down at her level and got some shots of her walking right towards the camera.

We joked about how it would be hilarious if they didn't use us at all but only used the shot of Una looking insanely happy as she walked towards the camera.

As we drove home, we decided the story was probably for the 6 p.m. newscast. It was about 4 p.m. at this time, and I wondered aloud how they'd get back to the studio and have time to edit the piece. That's when The Gryphon reminded me they could feed the raw footage to the studio and an editor there could put the piece together.

"Oh, yes, of course," I said. I explained that I'd come from the Flintstones era of broadcasting, when we would have actually run the tape back to the edit lab. This was back in my days as a Broadcast/Cable major at Penn State. "We also had to stop our cars with our feet," I told him.

When we got home, I checked the TV Guide online to find out when the newscast was airing and then set up a tape to record it while I did some grocery shopping. When I got back I watched it.

The first couple minutes of the newscast were preempted by a golf game. Then they led off with a story about the heat. The second story was the budget story. Aside from getting the name of the street slightly wrong — calling it Ridley State Park instead of Ridley Creek State Park — the reporter had done a decent job.

They clearly didn't seem to know there was more to the park, though, because they hadn't gone down to the pathway where they could have gotten a lot of great B-roll of joggers, bikers and dog walkers. Then again, maybe they were on a tight schedule and knew they already had enough for the short piece.

I wasn't surprised that they featured Una prominently, near the beginning of the piece. She was happily walking towards the camera. She would have kept going, too, except that I recall having made her turn, fearing she would lick the camera lens. Of course, I must say that a low-angle shot isn't terribly flattering for a pear-shaped person like myself.

They also used a lengthy quote from me, near the end of the portion on the state park. Then they moved to other state services that could be shut down because of the impasse. The Gryphon, however, didn't appear at all, except for his legs in the scene where we were walking with Una. Nice legs, though.

After he watched it, he took it in stride. We both agreed that Una was the true star of the piece.

Surprisingly, I was pleased with the head shot of me. When I first heard it, I didn't recognize my voice. It sounded deeper, richer than usual on recordings. I also liked the tight shot of me, and I was glad that I'd taken the trouble to put some makeup on before we'd headed out the door.

It's true, you never know who you're going to run into.

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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