Saturday's Old Photo

Oldest daughter was a doer and oldest son a thinker. As a toddler, she was always in motion, flitting here and there, but I could sit him in the sandbox and he’d play happily for an hour or two, digging and pouring, never moving from the spot I’d plopped him in.

In this photo oldest son is seven and he is taking apart his “very own chainsaw”, which was scavenged from the dump. 

His school journal from this time has many pages concerning dump trips and “his very own chainsaw”. Unfortunately, I cannot find his little journal, so I am reproducing a sample from memory:

Yesterday I went to the dump with my dad. It was fun. It was really really fun. I got my own chainsaw. It is my very own chainsaw. I love my chain saw. It is really really fun.

You get the idea.

He managed to take his chainsaw apart on the basement floor, clean it up and put it all back together again. You’ll notice that he is looking, sort of, at the camera as the picture was snapped, but his eyes are a little unfocused. That’s because his brain gears are still stuck in chainsaw mode. He is looking at the camera, but thinking about his chainsaw.

See how he is holding his left hand up under his chin? He still sometimes does that when he’s deep in thought. 

Watching him work is his little sister, who was his persistent shadow. Back then, he wanted to be left in peace to work on his projects, so he considered her annoying. Now his pesky little sister is his very good friend.

The basement was a mess then and it still is. It’s just messy with different stuff.

Comments

[Kim in ON]

My grandpa loved going to the dump. It was like a special day out when he went to the dump. My middle boy used to like it, too.