Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Picture no. 16: The toys and joys of childhood

Eugene Field (September 2, 1850 - November 4, 1895) was an American writer best known for writing poetry for children and humorous essays. Some of you might have come across his melancholy poem “Little Boy Blue” with such lines as:

The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and staunch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.

“Now, don't you go till I come,” he said,
“And don't you make any noise!”
So, toddling off to his trundle-bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys;
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue---
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!

I took the picture above in the early 1990’s. I used Kodak T-Max black and white film (if I remember correctly) and my beloved Canon AE-1 Program camera with a Vivitar 28-210 mm zoom lens. I first saw the rusted cans of baby milk products but I felt that something was missing. I looked around the area and then I then saw an old rubber doll that my nephew (five years old at the time) had discarded. I placed the rubber doll in one of the cans and then I shot this picture.