| What is in the jar? |
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This is the question we get asked most often. In 1982 we caught a Cockroach and put it in a jar (the jar). We realized he might get hungry so we gave him a butterscotch. Then for some reason we thought he might be lonely so we cut out a photo of actor Robert Young (Father Knows Best, Marcus Welby M.D.) from a coffee advertisement and placed him in the jar. You can actually see his face in the enlargement of the first photo. Over the years the jars changed and were empty. Then in 2007 we found a jar just like the original. We put a butterscotch in it, which you can see in the photo above, but no Robert Young and no roach. In 2012 we found a copy of the coffee advert online and printed the image of Robert Young, added a plastic Cockroach and though he didn't need it we gave him a butterscotch. When we appeared on the Today Show Matt Lauer asked if he could hold the jar when we posed for a photo with him. In 2017 that photo of Matt Lauer replaced the one of Robert Young. We will return to Robert Young in 2022 or perhaps we'll have a contest in which the winner gets to be the head in a jar.
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| What happens when one of you dies? |
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We had never really thought of this until Santa
Barbara News-Press writer
Charlotte Boechler breached the subject in 2007. At first we just said we would keep going, leaving a blank space for our absent friend. When the story went viral in 2012 we were asked this question quite often. So we started thinking. We might still opt for the blank space. We thought an Urn might be funny, since we have a sense of humor about it. Another option is that we each have a mug with our nickname one it. The mug for that person could be placed in the blank space. How about a cardboard cut out? There are plenty of ideas but the real answer is we will keep taking the photo. We will keep taking it until there is no one left and then hopefully someone, perhaps John Dicksons' son will take a photo of an emtpy deck railing where we once sat.
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| Are all of you Married? |
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At the time of the 2012 photo only 2 of us were married. By the time of the 2017 photo all of us were married. So that is 3 weddings in five years.
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| Do you have any children? |
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At the time of the 2012 photo none of us had any children. As of the time of the 2017 photo John Dickson is now a proud father of a son.
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| How did you all meet? |
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John Dickson (JD) and Dallas met first, in the first grade but later went to separate schools. They met again at Santa Barbara High School (SBHS). John Wardlaw (Wedge) met Dallas and John Molony (Belves) in the 7th grade but didn't become friends until attending SBHS. The most significant meeting was between JD and Wedge. On July 26th 1977 the Sycamore Fire burned over 200 homes in Santa Barbara. Wedge lost his house that day. His family rented a home from the Dicksons until their house was rebuilt. Wedge and JD became good friends. Had it not been for the fire they would never have met and there would be no photo. Mark was brought into the group by JD who met him while making a student film with some other friends. It was making films together that bonded our friendship. We all graduated from SBHS in June of 1981.
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| What are your nicknames? |
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Because there are three Johns in our group we needed nicknames other than our last names. John Dickson became JD, John Wardlaw became Wedge (the shape of his head) and John Molony became Belves, which is short for Belvy which was short for Belvedere, named after a line in a Warner Brothers cartoon.
Dallas is sometimes called Sallad and Mark was sometimes called Kram, both backward versions of their names. Their nicknames are not used often.
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| Whose idea was it to take the first photo? |
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JD was the only one with a real 35mm camera. He was the one who said "lets take some group photos". His idea and his photo.
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| Whose idea was it to duplicate the photo? |
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Wedge wanted to duplicate the photo when he was able to get all five guys to go on a trip to the lake again in 1987. Wedge has taken all of the photos after the first one.
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This page lauched on June 13, 2018. There are a lot more questions to answer, but it does take time to fill them in here and hope someone decides to read them. So for now I'll just say more to come....
-Wedge / Guy on the Left |
