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Tom Hildreth
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« on: December 04, 2009, 03:30:38 PM » |
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Back when I was "just a kid", going to the Westover AFB Armed Forces Day Open House was an eagerly anticipated event. By the late 1950s the "made in occupied Japan" binoculars I carried around had been supplemented by a second hand Agfa Billy Record camera. The shot below was taken by my brother, Pat, with this camera at the 1959 Open House. I am on the right with the binocular case, at thirteen years of age. My friend Dan Moore is the tall guy in the middle, and friend Paul Bernier was on the left. We all lived on Tampa Street in South Hadley, MA at the time.  Today, 50 years later, I got an email from Andrew Biscoe stating he had added some photos contributed to his Westoveryesterday.com website by a fellow named Art Spoffard. Somehow, Spoffard managed to capture the same group of kids as seen in the picture above. In the photo below, back to the camera, I can be seen with right arm raised. On my left is Paul Bernier in the dark shirt, and in the plaid shirt behind him, looking upward, is Dan Moore. The fellow with the short blond hair, looking back over his left shoulder is my brother Pat, and my guess is that he has the Billy Record in his right hand.  What are the chances that at an airshow that likely had 250,000 attendees, in 1/60th of a second on that long and busy day, someone with a camera captured the four of us together in clearly recognizable form? Art, but thanks a million! Tom Hildreth |
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jamesmck
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« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2009, 04:28:48 PM » |
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That is truly amazing, Tom. What a small world.
James
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James McKearney
Washington, DC
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jake
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« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2009, 04:31:48 PM » |
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Spooky! Did it make you feel like you should look over your shoulder even now?
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radiophoto
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« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2009, 05:28:01 PM » |
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Personally that would make me feel like a goose had walked across my grave. But after I got over that I'd tell everybody I knew (and show them the two pics, too).
Thanks for sharing this, Tom!
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Pete (Corpus Christi, TX) Every professional should remain always in his heart an amateur. - Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) My Website
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Madrigal
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« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2009, 03:42:34 AM » |
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That is truly amazing. Very cool thing to happen.
Thanks for sharing it with us!
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Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness. -Yousuf Karsh
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melek
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« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2009, 05:00:51 AM » |
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Tom, that has to be one of the coolest things that I've seen. Who would have thought that you'd be in a seemingly random photo taken some five decades ago and that it would surface now?
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Mike Kovacs
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« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2009, 05:19:13 AM » |
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Wow, that is some coincidence! Nice to see the colour too.
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Julio1fer
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« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2009, 06:41:58 AM » |
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Photography + Internet + friends = miracle
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Tom Hildreth
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« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2009, 04:12:44 PM » |
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Yes, I do feel a little "creeped out" by this. The next day passed without anything of note happening to me, so on we go. There is an additional person in this "six degrees of Separation" story, a guy that was a member of the unit that flew the B-52s at the time of the photo has uploaded a photo of himself in front of the same aircraft, though on the opposite side. And if that isn't curious enough, I served with this same person in the Air National Guard about 30 years after the original photos were taken!!! Another nice thing, not apparent without explanation, is that my brother and I still get together one or two days a year for a photography day trip. I think he still has the (retired) Billy Record, and I bought one in a second hand store just to show people what my first "good" camera looked like.
It may be creepy, but I just had to share all this. But you know, I'm wondering of it is all over, or will there be another person surfacing...
the shadow knows....not me!
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LarryD
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« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2009, 06:13:22 PM » |
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DoooDoooDoooDoooo
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Film photography and the Soviet Union are not dead. Just downsized.
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lesged
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« Reply #10 on: December 20, 2009, 07:20:05 AM » |
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Tom, Here is my offering for a photo coincidence that fits your question, "What are the chances...?" It turns out Julio1fer and I were in Mexico in 1968 and took photos of the University of Guanajuarto from the same balcony, possibly on the same day. http://nelsonfoto.com/SMF/index.php/topic,10181.msg93797.html#msg93797 Two members of NFF, both foreigners in a third country, shooting the same shot.. What are those odds? Scroll down a bit to get to both our photos. |
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Tom Hildreth
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« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2009, 03:27:01 PM » |
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Pretty cool, Les. You two have experienced something similar, in a way.
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epatsellis
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« Reply #12 on: December 27, 2009, 09:23:19 PM » |
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Tom, how's this for coincidence, I grew up in the 'Falls, at the bottom of Memorial Drive, moved to South Hadley in the early '90's. I grew up tramping the back way to the state park, via the corner of the base that is basically a huge sandpit.
erie
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Tom Hildreth
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« Reply #13 on: December 30, 2009, 02:30:43 PM » |
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That's Chicopee Falls, right? In the mid-60s I did a bit of underage drinking at a place called the "Say When" near what was then called the "industrial gate". This entrance later became the main gate in the 90s. I think this is near the sandpit area you mentioned. It's been a long time since I was down that way, and it's getting hazy.
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