Lost Childhood Object

Imagining someone else's childhood was tough for me mostly because I kept thinking mine must be similar. The whole time Charlotte was describing playing in her backyard, I was picturing my backyard where I grew up playing. I never played with the toy that she described, or at least not often, but it was so easy to imagine those feelings of playing with a favorite toy after just thinking back to my own. At first, I was unsure of how to create the Littlest Pet Shop dog she described. Later she found a photo and it looked different than her description, so I wanted to make the toy a mixture of how she remembers it and how it actually looked, because I think that the way she remembers it is just as important as how it actually was. I decided to use papier-mâché because it gives an object a childhood feel and would be a good way to make the dog look rough and scruffy like she described. I made the dog a bit bigger than what a normal Littlest Pet Shop size would be, since our toys seemed bigger to us when we were smaller. I photographed it fallen over since Charlotte fondly mentioned how it would topple over often since its head was so big. Using papier-mâché did make me feel more connected to Charlotte's memory, as I used papier-mâché many times growing up for crafts, so I felt like a kid playing going into the assignment, and I used the comic section as well to increase that feeling. However, it was tricky in a sense where I felt like I matched her descriptions, but only she was there and can really be the judge of whether or not this captured the feelings she had towards this dog. It's interesting how similar we can feel our experiences are-- and they can be-- but without confirmation from Charlotte I really can't be sure. However, even if our toys differed, I think a lot of the emotions we tied to those toys- fondness, love, reverence, etc., are similar.

Seeing the skateboard that Charlotte made me was amazing. It looked just like the one I used to have and immediately took me back to rolling around on it in my driveway 15 years ago. It's interesting to have someone else recreate a memory that is mine-- I almost felt like she had been there since the board she created was so spot-on. I felt more known and almost like we must have each had this toy. I think the materials help with the process of translating memory. The wood of the board and the wheels with the orange writing, though not exact, were so similar that my feelings were there in that board.