Saturday, September 25, 2010

Summer Stock Sunday - 33











My vintage look at summer for Summer Stock Sunday, hosted by Robin at Around the Island.

Robin's second summertime photo meme has once again been a favorite highlight of my blogging year - thanks, Robin! To bring 2010's version to a close, here's a picture that epitomizes summer for me.


















This is my dad as a kid, playing cowboy in front of his parents' store in rural Quebec in the 1940's.

Though social role play can occur indoors or out, in every season, for some reason the 'let's pretend' play in which I took part as a kid is far more vivid to me when it happened outside. I played non-storytelling games like skip rope, hopscotch, red light/green light, and hide and seek, but I far preferred all the times when we enacted scenes from shows like Little House on the Prairie, I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart or Six Million Dollar Man.

When I was at Ryerson directing my student films, I often heard the echoes of my childhood self setting up scenes with my friend, my cousin and my sister:

"I'll be Mary, you be Laura and you be Nellie. Now let's pretend Nellie has invited us over to her house and she's being mean to us."

And in a bit of foreshadowing, Dad's social play which gravitated towards being an imaginary gunslinger was the precursor to his sharpshooter status when he served with the US army in the 60's.

7 comments:

Mama Pajama said...

I had to go back and catch up on the posts I missed! I really enjoyed this trip through you past, through vintage photos - thanks for sharing!

Gattina said...

That's such a cute picture ! I have forgotten summer already, it is quiet cold here only 9° today and it rains !

kim said...

Such a sweet picture! I loved Lil' House on Pra!

Akelamalu said...

Little House on the Prairie was a real favourite of mine. Childhood games were so much fun.

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

that's my first and all time favorite novels...
family, love, and life..
thanks for sharing.

Ana said...

I totally LOVE this picture! We loved Little House, but I don't remember ever acting it out.

Robin said...

Freedom to play and fresh air to breathe, it's what summer's all about, isn't it? I so enjoyed your summer retrospective Julia, thanks so much for sharing it.

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