This article was originally written by Emily Phillips for SWNS — the U.K.’s largest independent news agency, providing globally relevant original, verified, and engaging content to the world’s leading media outlets.
Since going on vacation together 44 years ago, a group of friends has carried on a sweet tradition: posing for the same photo at the same spot every five years.
Now 62 years old, pals John Wardlaw, Mark Rumer-Cleary, Dallas Burney, John Molony, and John “JD” Dickson all attended Southern California’s Santa Barbara High School. They’d often spend their weekends together listening to music and making Super 8 movies.
1982
After graduation, the teens were vacationing at Wardlaw’s grandfather’s cabin on Copco Lake, a former reservoir on the California-Oregon border, when Dickson set up the first photo of the group sitting next to each other. It was 1982, and they were all about 19. Five years later, Wardlaw had the idea to duplicate the snap when the quintet went on another trip in the same location.
“We all liked the photo. I even had a 20-by-30-inch poster of it hung in my house at the time,” Wardlaw, who now lives in Bend, Oregon, told SWNS of that first snapshot. “It kind of went from there.”
1997
The friends took the same photo in 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, and 2022 — and plan to do it again next year at the lake house, which Wardlaw now looks after. (The lake itself was drained in 2024 as part of the Klamath River Renewal Project.) The jar Molony is holding in all the photos originally contained a cockroach caught on the guys’ first trip that was dubbed their “mascot.”
“We didn’t plan it and didn’t make a vow to keep it going until it was done four times,” Wardlaw said. “By the time it was 1997, we vowed to keep doing this no matter what.”
When CNN first covered the story in 2012, it went viral, and the group was told the article received “an unofficial number of over 50 million views on their website,” per Wardlaw. “And the reaction was almost 100% positive.”
2012
Even the few negative comments that’ve popped up over the years have brought smiles to the friends’ faces. “We laugh with social media. For example, a fashion magazine might share an article, but their articles are usually about what people wear or how they look,” Wardlaw said. “We can tell they’re in good humor, but there will be comments about how we’ve aged, like, ‘White guys age poorly.’ It makes us laugh.”
2022
But for the most part, others’ reactions have helped Wardlaw appreciate the uniquely special bond between his friends. “I have to admit there was a period of years I would only see John Molony to take the photo — there are two photos and I didn’t see him anytime between those photos,” said Wardlaw. “But it’s been wonderful to have a friendship like this, and when the story got a lot of press in 2012, we realized how rare it was, and it made us stay in touch more and made us feel how much more special it was.”
Wardlaw explained that over the years, it’s become more difficult to stay in touch. The friends have mostly relocated, with Dickson the only one remaining in Santa Barbara, but they plan to continue making the long drives or flights to the cabin for the sake of tradition.
“We’ve actually the five of us been at the house together, but not taken the photo for the last three summers,” Wardlaw said. “We usually get together for as many days as we can — a few of us are officially semi sort of retired. We’ve been enjoying it and spending more time together over the last few years.”
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