Imagine.

by aaronjhill

Imagine a boy.
A German boy, about five years old.

His family, like all families in this community, has a wagon.
These are used for hauling groceries.
By farmers working the fields.
For anything a family needs to do.

He sees an opportunity.
Another use for the workhorse wagon.
Ride it down the hill! 

And so he did.
But the boy, like most boys, overlooked one small detail.
There is no braking mechanism on a wagon.
So the boy & the wagon crash at the bottom of the hill
unceremoniously ending the fun. 

The wagon handle used to pull it is broken.
Does his father scold him? Or laugh heartily?
Father repairs it.
The wagon is ready again for whatever is needed. 

The boy is a man now.
His hair is white and his beard has turned too.
But that boyish enthusiasm & sense of adventure remain.
He shares stories of the wagon. 

This is his wagon.
But not only his.
He shares it with his sisters.
It is a family heirloom.
The fix by Father still notable.

The German word for this type of wagon is leiterwagen.
Translated into American as ladder wagon
For the sheltered unilingual majority of us.
The sides are made from pieces of wood resembling ladders.
Hmm, makes sense.
I will leave it him to properly pronounce it. 

However, it is much more than a wagon.
It has many such stories to tell.
Now, it is a music machine too.
Sharing with the world.
A message that he and his artist friends want to convey.