Who was the boy who sat here, who is now someone’s grandpa? School Days of the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s were a time when pigtails found their way into inkwells and little boys made friends with toads. Desks were hooked together in long rows, and the students were usually seated alternately… a boy and then a girl. This kept the students from talking so much.
This sculpture tells of a young boy as seen through his school desk. We see his faded school books. On top “Appletons 4th reader”, a book used at the turn of the century. Pages are well warn from years of use. A report card is barely visible, perhaps he has stepped away to talk to the teacher, because his frog waits for him at the desk. The toad is a "Bufonidae-boreas" (Western Toad) found mainly in dryer climates of the Rocky Mt. and Southwest states.
Did he carve the initials in the desk or was it an earlier romance. Ironically, the artist sat in this type of desk in the 1st through 4th grade. He remembers there were usually names carved in the desk top from previous years students.
This piece evokes the nostalgia of the meager, early American class room and the life of frontier school days. | 
