toys, by string and by sling

I passed these two while on my usual Saturday afternoon stroll to the pool.  They looked to happily chummy that I couldn’t help risking the photo.  I should perhaps explain that there is a good reason for me to use the word “risk” here: this was actually my second attempt at a photo during this walk.  The first did not go so well.  I have grown so accustomed to eager photo-posers that it did not occur to me to encounter anything else.  So when I spotted a youngster wheeling around an ingenious homemade toy, I happily pulled out my camera.  If you can picture those wooden-wheeled creatures that toddlers pull around with a string then you have the general idea.  This one, however, was made from 2 plastic juice containers fitted together on top of reused wheels . . . very worth documenting.  But when this one saw me with my camera, he took off in a very impressive sprint.  I was quite perplexed, actually, and stood there for a few moments, camera in hand, watching him and wondering if I should take it personally.

Thankfully, these two fellows came along shortly to appease my camera-happy self.  And if you look closely in the left boy’s hand, you will see another hand-made sort of a toy–one I remember well from my own childhood: it is a slingshot, that he was putting to good use as he walked, periodically grabbing a few pebbles from the road to toss out at creatures on land and in the air . . .