sThree Kids Playing, 1961

Every time I look at the v-shaped birds I used to draw, I think of Van Gogh. Here they wheel above children enjoying their halcyon environment & its appurtenances: sunshine & ice cream. Is that a strawberry cone or a bouquet of flowers for the young lady skipping rope? Puberty is along way away, but the earth's fecundity is apparent all around.

Skipping Rope Park, 1961

Back then we didn't know that lost balloons kill aquatic birds. But at least the kids are getting exercise. When I was 6-12 years old, I'd play football, baseball, cowboys & indians and other war games all over the neighborhood until the streetlights came. And we didn't wear bicycle helmets.

Skip, Kite & Birds, 1962

I was never a rope-skipper, wasn't good at it, and can't remember hanging around with any rope-skippers. Looking at the drawings in this post, you'd think I had a thing for rope-skipping girls. Maybe I did, but I don't remember it. I went to Catholic schools, here in Djakarta where these were drawn, and later in Virginia, until 8th grade when I went to public school, so I did imprint on those plaid uniform skirts. In elementary school I had crushes on Bonnie Shipe, Elise Quasebarth & Meridee Orndoff.