I had a hard time with this week’s
Sepia Saturday theme since I had no football players (we’re less of an athletic family, more musical), and of course the older cameras weren’t really capable of taking action shots without a ton of motion blur. However, if we take the theme down to “play,” I have a great set of photos of my grandpa, Leon Kitko, when he was a young boy, posed in front of what is probably a pedal car with his teddy bears. He was probably about 3 or 4 when the photo was taken, so that makes the date about 1936-1938 or so. The back of the photos are only labelled with his name, abut the right photo has an extra note, “Leon J. Kitko and his 2 bears.” The bears are actually still around, wrapped up in a cedar trunk that my grandpa moved with him over the years. The front of that pedal car has, “Bud,” painted on the side. As the story goes, he was called buddy growing up and when he went to school, the teacher called, “Leon Kitko,” during roll call. Confused when he didn’t respond, she looked at him directly and asked him why he didn’t respond. He said that Leon was not his name, it was Buddy!
It’s a darling set of photos taken in the yard at the house where he grew up. While he’s not in a football uniform or tackling anyone, he’s a young boy playing with his teddy bears and I think that plays into the theme fairly nicely!
Each photo by itself is terrific but what a treasure to have a sequence of three, and still have the bears too.
What a little cutie
Those are so sweet – it’s funny picturing old men once playing with teddy bears. The story of his name is hilarious. It reminds me of my young friend whose 4-year old asked her if her full name was “Mommy Kimberly.”
What a fantastic car!! I always wanted a pedal car as a child. I still remember one up on a shelf in a showroom in Hawaii. It was a baby blue Cadillac. It wouldn’t have compared with your grandfather’s grand car. Great photos to have.