11-Sep-1999 -- It was my 31st birthday, and my wife had kicked
me out of the house under the pretense of making a fancy birthday dinner
for me. This actually turned out to be a cover for the preparations for a
surprise birthday party, but that is another story. So rather than travel
aimlessly around the city, I stopped off at my parents house. After telling my
Dad about The Confluence Project, we decided to head off in search of
my selected confluence. My Mom said she had 12 shots left on her
camera, and borrowing it, we left.
The trip there was uneventful, and as my dad paced off the southward
steps to the confluence down the middle of the road, I watched for
oncoming traffic. Turning east, it appeared the confluence would work
out to be in the middle of someone's driveway. What an honor! And
doubtless they were ignorant of the honor! We would remedy that soon
enough. Before pacing off the distance up the driveway, I stopped to
take a photo from the street. The shutter clicked and the film started
rewinding! Rather than 12 shots left, as mom had predicted, the film had
only 1 shot, consumed before actually reaching the confluence. As the
neighbors were already starting to peek around corners at the strange men
pacing off distances in the street, we decided to beat a hasty retreat and
go for more film. As we raced back to Dad's truck, a man smoking a pipe
came out of his garage and walked down his driveway toward us. The
confluence driveway! As we began to drive away, he flagged us down.
His name was Tony. Quick explanations of our goal and our shortage of
film seemed to go down well with Tony, and he agreed to allow us to
photograph his driveway when we returned with more film.
Upon our return, Tony was waiting for us. He watched as we took
our North (#2), South, East (#3) and West (#4) photos. Tony was also
gracious enough to allow us to take his photo solo (#5) and with me,
that is with Mike, onthe very location of the confluence (#6). Sadly, he
removed his pipe before we could take the photos. To me, the pipe
seemed key to his "look". Oh well.
After wrapping up the thanks, I snapped a last photo of Tony
returning to his garage (#1) while Dad pulled the truck up and we
were on our way! To anyone thinking about shooting a confluence,
I say "go for it!". Sure, the pictures may turn out to be a tad boring,
but my Dad and I had fun doing it, plus we got to meet Tony. By the
way: Tony, if you're reading this, Dad and I just want to say thanks
for your cooperation and it was great meeting you.