Would you drink this?Laval, QC
November 2010
About these photos: We're sharing our favorite photos of the year for the next little while, and this photo is one of my faves. Please click here to share your own.I grew up with this bottle. It sat on a shelf in the basement of the home where I grew up, slowly gathering a thickening layer of dust over the years. My dad collected all sorts of exotic bottles of liquor. Didn't drink them: Just added them to the collection after picking them up on his travels or receiving them as gifts.
This bottle, in particular, always fascinated me. How couldn't it? It was - and apparently still is - a particular shade of blue that almost seemed to be its own light source. While I played in the dimly lit basement, I'd occasionally glance over at the dusty bottle, wondering how neat it was that someone, somewhere, decided to make something that looked so lovely.
I couldn't imagine that anyone would ever want to drink it, though. St
aring at it and appreciating it for its pure aesthetics seemed enough for me.Fast forward a whole lot of years and I found myself in at my mom's early last month going through some of my dad's things with her. She's been slowly winnowing things down, and on this visit, she made her way to the liquor collection. I helped her distribute what she could to friends - yes, I filled the hatch of my car with booze and, yes, I've included the picture here, too - and ended up bringing a few representative and well-packed bottles back to London with me.
Not because I'll ever drink them, but because they were a part of my childhood and it brought me a certain de
gree of comfort to know I had held onto these things that had brought my father a certain degree of comfort, too.That I was able to set up a quick photo shoot on my mother's dining room table and end up with a wicked cool shot that instantly takes me back to my childhood was, and is, a welcome and unexpected bonus. Life and loss still suck, but I'm learning to find snippets of brightness amid the murk.
Your turn: Do you remember a seemingly ordinary object from your childhood?
