The sweat off his back, though, came cheap to his master, if not to him.

This is a lovely line, and would be evocative even without the context. Making it literal rather than figurative is just cooooooool.

Photo 10

He had the wrong shoes for this job. There wasn't much call on Wall Street for work boots. The man behind the counter had barely looked up as he pushed the information on where to report through the opening in the smudged glass. He was only interested in one thing on the paper himself: $20 a week. The shoes had cost twice that. He had hesitated to spend that much, but his boss thought snappy dressing encouraged investors. "They'll last a lifetime," the salesman said, but they had only lasted through his old life. His new life would ruin them.

[link] Picture 4

In 1963, my new brother-in-law was talking to Dad about the new women's liberation movement, and he started on about how wives and mothers should stay in the home like they always have.

In the kitchen, Mom started laughing, but I heard her muffle it in a dishtowel.

Brother-in-law looked halfway between embarassed and annoyed. Dad just smiled, got up, and pulled a framed picture off a shelf. "Yes, son, they've always just stayed home."

Photo #7

Of course she would rather be at home, taking care of her babies and her house. Naturally. Assembling work is boring, the same thing over and over again, nothing anyone would choose to do. But it's important. It could be her husband who needs that transfusion and every bottle could be the one to save his life.

That's why she has a spring in her step when she sets off to work in the morning, why she hums through the day, why she's proud of her low error count and high speed. What other reason could there be?

I like that, t.

Yours got me started thinking about it, connie.

I had been looking at the same picture Ginger did, but her take was much better than what I was coming up with.

These are great.

I have one brewing, but I dunno if I can pull it off or not. It might be kind of a stretch for the photo in question.

Hey, I thought mine was a stretch! Pretend it's Reed Richards, Liese.

Ginger, I never would have picked up on the shoes without your drabble. So cool.

-t, I could not figure out what those things were supposed to be for the life of me!

Good thing I have all you guys to show me these pictures.

Those are all amazing. I'm utterly stumped. Sail, awesome work. I especially like the second one.

I only know from the photo title, (page title whatever it is, you see how much I know?), Sail, and it took me a while to figure out how to read that.