This is a photo of Stowe, Vermont, I took in August 1976…that would be a little over 35 years ago. At that point in my life I was young and fancy free working at the Green Mountain Inn, Stowe, as third Chief or in my case “cook” would better describe my skills. The head Chief at that time was Roger Strong, a man who not only was my boss but a friend. He made a really hard job fun.
I came to be in Stowe because I’d quite my job in N.C. and started driving without a known destination — ending up here. Like I said, young and fancy free. The following year, 1977, I joined the USAF as a way to see more of the world…which I did.
This photo’s a little rough as I scanned it from the only printed copy I have — the negatives were lost long ago. Still it brings back some good memories. Just to the right of the church steeple is Mt. Mansfield, highest point in Vermont and a nice days climb. There’s beaver ponds in the foreground…I wonder if they still exist…probably not. This was taken from the East of town looking towards the West.
I may do these “nostalgic” photo posts from time-to-time, at least until someone objects. :-)
Nostalgic is very good! I enjoyed the post, knowing some background puts meaning to your work.
Colin, thanks! I hope your new job is going well.
I visited Stowe several years ago, thanks for taking me back!
Steve, I’ve been back to Stowe a couple of times since this photo. It doesn’t look the same.
Bring ’em on, Earl, love it!
Careful what you ask for, Chris! :-)
Great story Earl, and one that is symbolic of the importance of the photographs we take.
What you describe with not having the negative is something I often think about with digital files and the media we use today. I imagine there will come a time when the digital file is lost, misplaced, corrupted, or something along those lines. Maybe we will have a print to preserve that memory, but it seems more likely these days that the only version that exists will be digital. Those are the merits of analog that are too quickly forgotten.
Mark, even with negatives a lots depends upon how you store them. If I could have found the negative for this photo it might not have yielded much better results.
With any media it all comes down to how careful or prudent we are about archiving the data. There’s no reason digital data couldn’t last a very, very long time if stored safely and properly, perhaps being moved to newer storage media as needed. Plus it’s easier to have multiple copies of digital data which could be stored at different locations.
Much as I hate to admit it, I’m nostalgic myself and love to see early photographs posted, especially with a back story like this. More.
Ken, I try not to be too nostalgic but I do think remembering the past for both the good and the bad is overall a healthy thing. I’ll probably sprinkle in some more of these post. Thanks!
Very cool, Earl. I really liked the story about you setting off on an adventure and not even knowing where it would lead to. That, in my mind, is very cool. :)
Paul, Yeah, those things we do without hesitation when we’re young. With age comes wisdom and caution, but there can be too much caution. Sometimes I think I’ve lost too much spontaneity in my life but then when you’re older there’s less time to recover from mistakes — caution again. ;-)
There is no such thing as overdoing nostalgia for me. I would love to see this become an ongoing series. Nostalgia Tuesday, or what ever. This is a lovely photo and a very nice story. Bring ’em on.
Oops, don’t know where the “Tuesday” came from. Tells you something about the scattered state of my mind.
Anita, thanks, I’m sure there will be at least a few more of these. Perhaps next time it will be on a Tuesday and you were simply being clairvoyant. :-)
What a wonderful trip down memory lane – thanks for sharing that beautiful post!