See You Again in… Five Years

We have landed in turbulent times, when we are forced to appreciate it whether we like it or not: nothing is more precious than a true friend. Than knowing you have someone to count on, while the years are just a number that changes nothing. You can break off a conversation with that person, problems can sweep you both away, and a year later you pick up as if you had never parted.

Put like that, it sounds so saccharine, even utopian. But everyone has felt it at some point. Friendship is irreplaceable, and yet we often push it to the back burner, caught in the whirlpool of everyday life. And only the small things and the big problems remind us that we should reach out to the person close to us, our kindred spirit…

This digital story, which comes from across the ocean, is a living metaphor for true friendship. For how it can run through the years like an ornament on life.

It doesn't change. People who share a real bond stay that way. Sure, the crown of a man's head goes bald, the little belly hints more and more at his weakness for treats, wrinkles mottle his once youthful face, but so what?

As long as the important thing, the thing that brings people together, is still in his heart.

The Famous Five

Copco Lake in California—you've hardly heard of it. The hot summer of 1982—most of you were hardly born. Five partygoers decide to take a goofy photo, with no idea that it will turn into a symbolic story, now told from one end of the world to the other.

The five keep getting together. Exactly five years later they find themselves by the lake again and decide to recreate the photo as precisely as they can. They line up… click! Then it happens again after another five years, and another five, and it becomes a tradition that brings them together. It turns into a ritual with lots of details… There are now eight photos, marking for the five of them the boundary stones between youth and middle age.

Yes, lately it has become popular and fairly easy to recreate, years later, a photo you took with relatives or friends; there are countless examples online. It is touching to see how the features change and how the river of years imperceptibly washes away the strength of everyone who wades into it. And still, a photo is strongest when there is a story behind it too. When it has itself become a metaphor.

Give Me Five!

So, let us introduce the good-natured guys from California. From left to right, in the same pose in every shot:

John “Wedge” Wardlaw, Mark Rumer, Dallas Burney, John “Belvs” Molony and John “J.D.” Dickson.

The story is told to us by Wedge himself, who introduces himself, just as on the five's website, as “the Guy on the Left.” You can tell he puts emotion into his words, even though we are probably at least the hundredth media outlet to which he has retold the tale behind the photos.

In 1977 a huge fire destroyed the home where Wedge's family lived, and his parents rented a house owned by J.D.'s family. Gradually the two became friends, and the other three kids joined the gang.

And so, it's '82, and the five are all 19. The Guy on the Left has invited his four friends from high school, which they graduated from a year earlier. The get-together is at his grandparents' cabin on the shore of the small lake in Northern California. They gather to spend the Fourth of July weekend, the American national holiday, together, to chat and catch up on what each of them has been up to over the past year.

Five of a Kind

As they sit on a bench by the lake, they decide to take a goofy photo as a keepsake. They set the camera on its self-timer, spontaneously strike odd poses and stare gravely ahead. There are props, too. The shot ends up featuring the old hat of the Guy on the Left's grandfather and… a jar. “Wait, we need a jar too!” John Molony shouts.

Why a jar, you ask? What's inside it? Have a little patience…

“For some reason we all decided to look kind of gloomy and mysterious. I guess we thought it made us look cooler,” Wedge says.

The five meet at the same spot again exactly five years later. And when they realize it's an “anniversary”… Wedge gets the fun idea of recreating the photo. “The others weren't very enthusiastic, but once I managed to talk them into it and they saw the result, they really liked it,” recalls the Guy on the Left, who is now well into his fifties and works as a photographer and director. Incidentally, the nickname “Wedge” also comes from the gang—a friendly joke about the shape of his head.

As for the rest, Dickson earns his living reviewing restaurants, Molony works for a transport company, Burney teaches third graders, and Rumer owns an electronics company.

“I had a feeling this could become a cool tradition, but I had no idea we'd keep doing it for a whole 40 years,” Wedge says. Over time the jars change, the hats too; only the tradition of the five-year photos stays the same.

“What you see in the photo is our natural relationship. It grew from the time when we were just school buddies to the point where we realized we shared a worldview. And given that, there's simply no way we could get tired of each other or become boring to one another,” Molony explains.

Five Stars

Their story was told by CNN in August 2012, shortly after the five had taken their seventh photo. Media around the world picked it up—from Sri Lanka to Macedonia. Kindred spirits from various corners of the planet with traditions of their own began contacting them. Others simply wrote to tell them how cool the idea was. They enjoy the attention and, mostly thanks to the enthusiasm of the Guy on the Left, they have profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a dedicated website.

Something that seems so ordinary becomes a universally understood symbol of friendship.

“I'm sure the signs of friendship can differ from culture to culture. But I think the sadness of missing a friend and the joy of seeing them again are the same everywhere on Earth. True friends are like family,” is how Wedge explains the interest.

“I think health, happiness, family and friends are all you need for a good life. And I believe those factors are interconnected. To me, friends are like family,” the photographer muses.

The Five-Year Plan

He admits he hasn't heard much about Bulgaria—he knows our country lies on the Black Sea coast and that two Olympics ago our volleyball players made it to the semifinals. He dreams of one day having the chance to travel around Europe too. He would also be glad to hear from Bulgarians who have a similar photo tradition.

So it turns out the five-year plan can sound quite modern after all. But in this case, too, it is an occasion for taking stock—the five meet, discuss what has changed and what the years have left untouched. “Our priorities back then were so different—all I thought about was summer and girls…,” Wedge looks back. Everything else, though, stays the same—at their reunions the five listen to the same music, Pink Floyd and Rush. They share the same sense of humor, too. “When we get together again after a long time, the old jokes and the things that make us smile just come back between us. Everyone feels great in the company of the others, and there's no way that won't stay the same.”

On the outside, things look quite different. Each photo carries something of the time in which it was taken. Hairstyles and fashions change.

Every time, the five give themselves over to talking, reading, fishing. And, of course, to taking pictures—each new photograph goes into a frame on one of the walls of the same cabin where they gathered in 1982.

They don't overdo the alcohol at these reunions. They need nothing beyond being together to have a wonderful time. “We were and still are just nerds. Well, I enjoy a glass of good rum and Coke, but what matters more to all of us is just being by the lake, having fun outdoors and listening to music until 2 a.m.,” says the Guy on the Left. “It's great to talk about the good old days, but also to catch up every time on what's going on in everyone else's lives. I can't wait to get together with the others again, and these vacations mean a lot to me.”

The Starting Five

“Watch us go bald and pack on the pounds, slim down and pack them on, slim down and pack them on again,” another of the three Johns in the photo—Dickson—has often liked to say.

Plenty of people have written to tell them they mixed up the 2002 and 2007 photos by mistake, because they look younger in the later one. There's no mistake: according to Wedge, one reason is that in that time they shed quite a few extra pounds. The other is that they had switched to digital cameras.

Of course, the friends don't meet only at the five-year reunion, though it has grown harder since only one of them has stayed in their hometown. The rest are scattered across California, Oregon and New Orleans. Weddings are another reason to see each other. You may notice that the wedding rings, too, appear and disappear.

In 2012 only two of them are married; by the next photo, they all are. John Dickson soon joins the list, and his bachelor party coincides with the seventh photo, marking the 30th anniversary of their friendship. He is also the only one with a child—becoming a proud dad at 51.

Which brings us to the jar, tied to the funny story the Guy on the Left tells us. From a teenage prank, the contents of the glass jar also turned into a tradition. What's inside, you ask? Just… a photo and a cockroach.

“We were young and stupid.”

The Fifth Element

The boys came across the little creature, which isn't usually found that much out in nature, and decided to pamper it as a pet—they put it in a jar with a red lid that happened to be at hand. They fed it brown-sugar caramel candies and, so it wouldn't be lonely, put in a photo of Robert Young, the actor who was all the rage back then. They chose him because he was famous from the commercials for the very coffee the jar came from. In the first photo you can see Young's face.

After that they used a different jar each time, until in 2007 they decided to go back to “the classic”—they bought the same coffee and even put the same caramel candies in the jar. And in 2012 they downloaded the same photo of Robert Young from the internet and added a cockroach again—only this time a plastic one. In 2017 the jar featured TV host Matt Lauer, whose show they had appeared on a little earlier to tell their story.

The five also take special care, if the sun is strong, to have the same deliberately bad lighting, which would definitely not please any photographer.

Quintessence

The hat also changes from photo to photo, until the last three, when they decide to introduce a standard.

Over these years the technology has evolved considerably too—the last four photos were taken with a digital camera. It was precisely after this change that the five began fine-tuning the shots ever more meticulously to achieve the closest possible resemblance. Taking the photo now takes them a whole hour, whereas at first they were done in half a minute. In 1982 they took one shot, then 2, 3, 6, 3, 3, 4 and… 17. At the most recent “five-year” reunions they have also recorded a video as a keepsake.

Naturally, mistakes happen too, which they discover later. In some photos they're wearing sunglasses, in others not. “Well, we can't control the weather…” In the 1987 photograph Wedge's shoulder is in front of Mark's, and Dallas hasn't crossed his legs. Ten years later Dallas and J.D. are smiling, contrary to tradition.

In 1997, somehow, everything came together in more of a rush. Dallas is laughing, unlike before, and the others aren't in quite the right positions either. So right after that Wedge set about writing down the key points to watch for in future editions. He records what everyone is wearing and where they're looking, spending hours studying the shots.

Five Don't Wait for One

From '92 on, the three Johns started wearing themed T-shirts.

In 2012 Mark had to drive all night from Oregon, where he lives, to make it in time for the photo. After his flight was canceled, he arrived only at 3 p.m. on the day of the shoot—he had been forced to drive more than 12 hours with barely a break, but he made it.

Of course, the future isn't always clear. Not long ago the local authorities planned for Copco Lake and the others along the Klamath River to be destroyed in 2020. People living in the area began protesting and, at least for now, delayed the decision. But it's entirely possible that for the next photo—in July 2022—the five will have to use an artificial backdrop.

Tram Number 5

The eight photos sit side by side. “We plan to keep taking them as long as we can,” the Guy on the Left concludes his story. “At some point we'll start dwindling. But as long as there's even one of the five of us left, he'll take the same photo. And after that too. We'll be very grateful, once we're all gone, if someone is kind enough to photograph the empty bench and complete the idea…”

And so the story of friendship and photos, balanced on the edge between a joke and something deeply touching, doesn't end but goes on. And anyone can continue it for themselves—here's a reason to remember someone close to your heart. Because with a true, old friend, even if you haven't spoken in years, it's as if you had never parted. Maybe it's time to call a kindred spirit you haven't thought of in a long while…

Last updated: June 16, 2022