Sunday, September 03, 2006

Dispatch from Cape Cod



Some adventures you never realize you're on until they stare you in the eye and tell you a story you find incredible. Or in my case, several stories, that is until you realize that you know most of them, they sounded familiar as the words were being spoken...you saw some of them in the paper or on the news, and you saw the movie, remember?

While not a photo of any great note (I'm still learning, just got the camera out of the box soon before I left for vacation!) this is my favorite of one Ed Walsh, retired Deputy Superintendent of the Boston PD. He runs a sports cards shop on Cape Cod and he's holding vintage Mickey Mantle cards in this shot. Unseen are the shots of him with Bobby Orr, Ted Williams, and some of the assorted 'bad guys' he busted over the years. Unless you spend time paying attention to the history of the Boston PD you may never have heard of him. But, as my mother-in-law loves to point out, my head is chock full of trivia.

Actually meeting someone as famous in investigative accomplishment as Ed Walsh was a rush. He joined the Boston police in 1955 and retired in 1987. I will not bore you with the number of times he won their medal of honor and other citations. The guy is a walking history of those years in Boston.

The two hours I spent with him in his shop were worth the twelve hour drive back through the remander of tropical storm Ernesto (if I thought I had made bad decisions driving up to the Cape it was just prep work for the drive back!). He should write a book!

I doubt I'll equal Fotoboy's work any time soon...but here's to trying!

3 comments:

JB said...

Hi there, congratulations for your interesting & curious blog.

Kind regards from Barcelona ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hey Chuck and Family

We were with you...well sort of, on Marblehead....better planning next year might put us up there together.

Obviously this is right up Bruce's alley, so I definately forwarded him to check in on your blog and the current story.

Ciao for now

PPS -Max and Ari got on the bus for the first time...thank goodness for big sis Elli as well.

Ibarionex R. Perello said...

Awesome, Chuck. I love the shot and the story behind in. Meeting interesting people like this is one of the best things about having a camera. I look forward to seeing you doing more with it. Remember, only use your powers for good.