Sidewalk Chalk – “Story” Photo Challenge

The theme for this week’s photo challenge is “Story.” The assignment: “do some visual storytelling with your photography.”

Sidewalk chalk is magical in the hands of a child. My siblings and I spent endless summer hours drawing giant snail hopscotch games, stick figures, stairways, and trails all over our narrow street and its old, cracked sidewalks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

We played until 9:00 pm when Mom called us in for the night. If she had let us stay out later, we would have kept drawing by the light of the fireflies, adding to our imaginary chalk world.

Sidewalk magic continues through the generations. Keep it going, sweet grand darlings.

“There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

“Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

“Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.”

~ Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends

What are your thoughts? Have you ever had fun with sidewalk chalk? I’d love to hear from you.

To see other “Story” photo challenge posts, visit Weekly Photo Challenge.

Here’s my last photo challenge, “Out of This World” – Devil’s Postpone.

 

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This entry was posted in family, Grammy Gets It, Kids, Lynn Kelley, Photo Challenge, Photo Essay, Poetry and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

10 Responses to Sidewalk Chalk – “Story” Photo Challenge

  1. Diana Beebe says:

    Sidewalk chalk is the best! I love these pictures of you being the body outline with your grandkids. So adorable!

  2. Can’t say I ever have. I see your outline was immortalized on that sidewalk.

  3. I loved to draw on the sidewalk with chalk when I was a kid! So did my daughter. Always was fun to come home from work and see what new artwork would adorn our driveway. 🙂 Your granddaughters are adorable!

  4. Pambelina says:

    When I would babysit my grandson, we always did sidewalk chalk. He would get so covered in chalk dust that when he got up and walked away, dust would fly off him like the character Linus in Charlie Brown. We did a zillion things with that chalk, including track it in all over my house! But I do believe it is a unique form of art, that develops wonderful skills in little ones 🙂

    • I love the image of your grandson covered with chalk dust like Linus in Charlie Brown. Remember Pig Pen? I think that was the other character’s name. Pretty funny. Yes, sidewalk chalk is so inexpensive and can provides hours of fun. Definitely a unique form of art, especially when drawn by children!

  5. Marilyn Powell says:

    So glad seeing you with grandchildren drawing with chalk! Yes, they are so adorable!
    In my day, we didn’t draw on the cement, don’t recall seeing anyone doing! Maybe they didn’t make chalk yet, at least for children! So sad, it is lots of fun!

    • I’m going to have to do a search and see when sidewalk chalk became popular. I’m guessing it started with regular blackboard chalk. When I was a kid, we didn’t have colored chalk like they have now. It was only white, just like in Shel Silverstein’s poem, this line: ““Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
      And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go.” Dang, I love that poem!

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