Boy with laundry
What it is:
Snapshot measuring approx. 3.25 x 4.5 inches.
What I know about it:
Undated. Danny Lee Hines written on the back in pencil.
Comments:
A nice little image for this lazy Sunday afternoon. It seems like nothing special at first glance, but this little snapshot keeps growing on me. The boy is so happy! It’s cute the way he can’t figure out what to do with his hands when the camera is pointed at him. And the ship’s wheel shorts are adorable. The more I look the more I wonder if that’s laundry or perhaps a “fort” or something. It looks like there’s an “X” on the sheets, and I can’t tell if that’s part of the original scene, or if it got drawn on and then reproduced, but it’s not drawn onto my vintage copy. I like the way the blurry edges give a sort of action quality to the picture, or else make it look like an image emerging from the past.
Pics of Then 
I completely forgot about “clothes props”. When I was young the laundry was hung out to dry on “clothes lines” that were stretched on permanent “clothes poles”. The weight of all the laundry on the lines would cause them to sag. Sheets, as well as larger or heavier items, would then drag on the graas. We had several long wooden poles with a notch carved into the top. Mom would catch the line in the notch and then prop up the clothes line with the pole. Seeing the wooden poles to the right of the boy’s head reminded me of the clothes props – that is exactly what they looked like when in position to hold the wet laundry above the ground. Thanks for the memory!