picture day

this morning i took the dog for a walk around the park. on our way over, i noticed a photograph that had been ripped into little angry squares, the pieces littering the sidewalk. i couldn't exactly make out what the image was, and i didn't want to bend down to inspect the scattered lot lest someone spy on me and wonder why i was crouching with a ripped photo jigsaw puzzle at my feet. so i let my curiosity subside and continued on.

i walked another five feet and noticed that the local elementary school was taking class pictures. there was a class of what looked like third graders arranged on stands, tall kids in the back, shorter kids up front. i don't know how long they had been standing there, arranged as they were, but already some of them were getting restless. some of them scratched at their hair, other kids fussed with their clothes, and still others (perhaps the most impatient or easily distracted of the bunch) were pointing at the dog, and yelling "oooh, look at the dog!" this made me smile. crazy little kids.

i noticed that a lot of the girls were in casual wear - sweaters and pants or jeans. actually, most of the kids were. no one was really dressed up. i don't recall a single dress on display. none of the girls had ribbons in their hair or any fancy hairstyles or anything like that. maybe picture day isn't as important or as big a deal as it used to be.

then i got to thinking about picture day when i was a kid. i remember i had to wear a lot of dresses. which really was a bit of a pain because then you're forced to wear the outfit for the entire day, making recess problematic. what if it was kickball or dodgeball that day? you'd be screwed because no matter how tomboyish you are, you can't wear a dress and play those games. it just wouldn't feel right.

i was always in the front row for class pictures. sometimes dead center. sometimes on the sides. depending on how the photographer wanted us positioned: pyramid or half-pipe. and there were a couple years in elementary school where i knew exactly who i'd be standing next to. MB. the shortest boy in the class, and consequently, always my partner for class dances. this i didn't mind so much because he was my friend. and i probably had a crush on him (whatever that means to a kid of 6 or 7.) he was filipino, had a bowl cut, and really deep dimples. i passed by his house everyday on the walk to and from school. and our moms were friends. so this made it easy to like him.

continuing with the walk, i found another photo jigsaw puzzle. but this time someone had been brave enough to do what i couldn't. someone had pieced the photo together. and the offending image was some curly-haired blonde lady in a business suit of either black and white check pattern, or houndstooth. across the woman's chest was a sash, one of those "ms. america" type sashes. but i don't remember what she won or what was written on the sash. but she was smiling, dorky-looking as she was. perhaps she was slightly embarrassed. or nervous. who knows. and who knows why there would be several copies (there were a couple more prints scattered in the roses and plants of the school premises) of this moment ripped apart by whoever.

it was very strange, very strange indeed, this picture day.