Photos: John Wardlaw
Thirty years ago, five high school friends sat together and took a photo
at Copco Lake, California. Though they didn’t plan it at first, posing
together became a tradition for them:
Every five years for the past three decades, John Wardlaw, John
Dickson, Mark Rumer, Dallas Burney and John Molony have been meeting
at the California lake and taking the same photo.The first photograph of the high school friends was just happenstance.
Wardlaw, known as Wedge in the group, had a family cabin at the lake
where the friends gathered in July 1982.While hanging out on the deck of the cabin, Dickson, or J.D.,
set his 35-millimeter camera on self-timer to take a group photo."For some reason, we all chose to have dark and mysterious
expressions on our faces," said Wardlaw. "I’m sure we all
thought we were being really cool."
And what exactly was in that jar?
Molony, known in the group as Belves, is pictured holding a Folgers
Instant Coffee jar, which contained a cockroach the guys had decided
to keep as a pet. They fed their new friend with a piece of butterscotch
candy and kept it company with a photograph of Robert Young.
Kelly Andersen has the story over at CNN: Link |
Their official webpage: Copco
Lake Five Year Photo
