A School Play

My Dad sometimes pulled this photograph out as evidence that he and my Mom were once children. I used to be amazed by it because I couldn't imagine that my Parents ever were that young.

I don't know what play the children were staging here. But it's a happy scene, and the teacher—on the right, in the 1920s-style head scarf—seems to have everyone under control.

Let the sun shine in!

Kaunas, Lithuania, about 1928. My Dad sits in the front row. He's the second boy, from the left, wearing the beak mask that covers his face. My Mom is in the penultimate row, in the center, with her hands forming the "M" over her head.

The bearded elves in the front row are saluting the photographer, and the fairies have their arms outstretched. Could this have been a reenactment of some Lithuanian pagan myth?