AA-2026-2EA6C2
On the image
By the 1960s, American towns had developed a taste for bronze nostalgia, commissioning statues of a childhood that was already leaving the premises. The "Sand Lot Kid" stands barefoot in overalls and a floppy hat, mid-swing at a pitch that will never arrive, a monument to a version of boyhood involving no adult supervision, no equipment budget, and apparently no shoes.
He was installed, like so many civic bronzes of his era, outside a public building with the assumption that citizens filing in and out on official business needed reminding of simpler values. The plaque does the necessary work of naming him, since the sculpture itself commits fully to anonymity, one boy standing in for every boy who ever played on a vacant lot before Little League leagues, waivers, and scheduled practice times took over.
He has weathered to a green-black patina that reads as authenticity rather than the result of forty summers and forty winters of runoff, which is the trick bronze always pulls. The tree behind him has grown up around the pedestal in the intervening decades, doing more honest work of marking time than the statue was ever designed to do.
Visually related — by likeness
"Sand Lot Kid" Bronze Statue, 1960s Civic Sculpture. 1960–1969. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-2EA6C2. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/sand-lot-kid-bronze-statue-1960s-civic-sculpture.
@misc{aaAA20262EA6C2,
title = {"Sand Lot Kid" Bronze Statue, 1960s Civic Sculpture},
year = {1960–1969},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-2EA6C2},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/sand-lot-kid-bronze-statue-1960s-civic-sculpture}
}TY - ART TI - "Sand Lot Kid" Bronze Statue, 1960s Civic Sculpture PY - 1960–1969 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-2EA6C2 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/sand-lot-kid-bronze-statue-1960s-civic-sculpture ER -
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