Grandpa's Catch

There is no fish in this picture. The catch is the heart the two fishing lines make in the water: they drop from a pier, cross, and loop back on themselves into a shape anyone can read.

The pier is just wide enough for two, a broad-shouldered grandfather and a small child sitting side by side with their rods angled out over the water.

Grandparents have their own day because of Marian McQuade of Oak Hill, West Virginia, who led the campaign for it. In September 1978 the White House called to tell her that President Jimmy Carter had signed a bill making the Sunday after Labor Day National Grandparents Day, starting in 1979.

Both figures are flat indigo silhouettes against a cream sky, seated at the end of a wooden pier with rod tips raised. Below, the water fades from rose at the horizon to deep indigo at the bottom, and the pier's shadow spreads across it. A thin gold line traces the two fishing lines down and into a heart, and the single word GRANDPA sits at the foot in small, widely spaced capitals.