Art? Fair.
20 years and 6 months ago today, I wrote this:
There's a University-sponsored fair this weekend in town [In the years since, it was killed by Covid], and my aunt asked if I'd like to join her and her kids in a sidewalk-chalk contest, for 4$. I said sure, thinking it might be fun. So this morning we all go down, get our boxes of pastel chalk, and our designated square, and we go to work on our pictures. I had no idea what I's going to draw, so I started with colored squares in what turned out to be the middle of my... well, I hesitate to call it art. Mine looked so bad after the first few squares, that I wrote "First, I'm sorry." above it, so people wouldn't be too harsh in the "Ohmigod - and [sic] adult did this" vein.
A lady just called me and said I won first prize. FUCKING SHIT! FIRST PRIZE! I've never won anything before! I'm freaking out!
I get a 75$ savings bond, apparently. [It's a 30-year bond that I still have; just nine more years!]
This is cracking me up.
The drawing - which looks extra shit in this picture because of a tree which blocked lots of sunlight, and created that dark pattern overlay - is really vibrant, and that isn't clear in this image. But there it is. [If I can locate the picture, I'll link it.]
––––
I may be in tomorrow's local paper! Or, anyway, a photo of my chalk-art may. [I have no memory of this part. Maybe it/my name was in the paper, but I sure wasn't.]
This cracked up my father and he would occasionally bring it up. He, for whatever it's worth, liked the drawing. I... did not.