Musician in the Making

There wasn’t much of a crowd at the Farmer’s Market the morning this photo was taken. I saw this kid come walking up in front of me and stop stock still. He was maybe two years old, maybe three.

His mom stood behind him, carrying a one year old in her arms. She smiled as she watched her little guy, mesmerized by the guitar man in front of him. Who’s on the radio you know… Remember Bread?

“Let’s go,” she said. He didn’t move.

“Come on, let’s go,” she said. “Daddy will be waiting for us.”

The next thing anybody knew, this kid sat down on the ground as you see him in the photo my wife took. There wasn’t an ounce of defiance. He just wasn’t ready to leave.

We let his mom know he’d be all right sitting there if she wanted to investigate some of the vendors close by.

So he remained where he was for maybe five minutes. He didn’t move a muscle that I saw. I like to think he got himself a guitar last Christmas. I got my first toy guitar when I was four or five, a blue plastic ukele my brother won at a carnival south of town.

The photo has an interesting surreal feel attributable to reflections from a plastic sleeve protecting it in a scrapbook. I took a photo of the photo on my iPhone.