A Boy and A Photo

"Sometimes I dream about that place. It's not real is it?"

This past weekend I walked into the guest room and discovered Noah lying on the newly made bed gazing up at the black and white photo of Oak Alley Plantation. It's a photo that was taken before the grand house was gussied up, freed from vines, and placed in commercials and movies. 

I assured Noah it was a real place, but his question took me surprise. That photo has so many stories attached to it that I treasure, yet until Noah posed his question I realized I had never sat down and shared them with him. That photo was taken by my grandfather in 1963, but was actually printed by my father in my grandfather's dark room many years after my grandfather's death. That photo was then given to my husband as a present for his graduation from medical school in 2000. That photo was then packed up and taken to Bremerton, Washington where it hung in our bedroom over a chest of drawers that eventually became Noah's changing table in 2003. 

Noah loved that spot. The black and white image entranced him and he would stare at it long after he was changed. It thrilled my dad to see how much Noah loved that image. It thrilled me, too...nearly nine years ago when Noah was an infant and this past weekend when I found my monkey boy once again drawn into the scene. My wild and silly, beyblade-loving boy will be turning nine later this week. I never knew he had dreams about that place, about that photo, but that makes me smile, too.