I’m lucky enough to have always had a room in my house for myself and myself alone. A place where books accumulate slowly but surely until all the shelves are full and stacks grow on the floor, where the walls grow photographs, maps, a thousand stick pins - bits and pieces of a life. After sixty years of no one is allowed to move my stuff, its a more a museum than a study.
Below is an image of three photographs pasted together as a vertical triptych of one of the bulletin boards that hang in my museum.
The first panel
• A photograph of a grandfather resting. His grandchild has crawled on top of him and is hugging his neck.
• A collapsed imaginary horse whose beloved rider, a wondering Princess, is urging to rise from the ground and continue galloping about the forest in pursuit of a dragon.
• “My child is an Honor Student at…” bumper sticker, an oak leaf, business cards, and a postcard of a Tutor house.
The middle panel
• A shining sun and a joyous moon look down on a colorful house.
• A map of England, Scotland, and Wales and
• A partial image of a shoulder, an ear, and a room
• A second photo of the grandchild resting on the grandfather’s head.
The bottom panel
• On the right, a greeting card showing a small smiling bear hugging a larger smiling bear with the prepositional phrase, “For a Fun Papa” printed above the bears in a white display font.
• The image on the left is of a cutout photo pasted on an index card of the grandchild sitting in a Radio Flyer. The child’s expression is content. Is she simply happy to be sitting in her lovely red wagon? Or is she being contently patient, sure that soon a hand will grasp the wagon handle and a ride down the sidewalk will begin?
