Neighborhood Watch

nobody@flickr.com (Studio d'Xavier) — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 08:58:01 -0700

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41/100 Billy

nobody@flickr.com (Studio d'Xavier) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:45:15 -0700

"Yep that house is better'n a hundret year old," said Billy as we watched the firemen coil up their hoses and stow their gear. "I live about two blocks down, and I didn't know if'n they was gonna get this 'un out!"

While I was taking photos of the sunrise over a car dealership, I saw smoke boiling up in the early morning sky. I never did hear the scream of fire engines though. As a result, I did not give chase. "Probably some illicit leaf burning," I thought. An hour later, I packed up my gear to drive home. I happened to drive near the blocked off intersection where the firemen were starting to stow their gear. I decided to pull over and join the crowd.

Billy saw my camera and came up and initiated the conversation himself. He was the kind of neighbor that knows everybody, the guy that keeps a mental record of everything in his head. The neighborhood historian. I asked him if anyone had been hurt. "I don't think anybody lives there any more," he said. I hope Billy was right. The automobiles in the driveway told a different story. Perhaps they were parked there simply to get them off the street.

I asked Billy if I could get a shot of him with the charred remnants of the house in the background. He seemed pleased as punch to be immortalized in front of this piece of his neighborhood's history. Meanwhile, the firemen were taking off their gear, news crews were setting up shop, and I wanted to move on to new strangers. I thanked Billy, and gave him one of my cards so he could find this photo of himself online. "I don't do that much," he told me, referring to surfing the internet. Perhaps I will just email him a photo if I hear from him.

Billy is my forty-first stranger in the 100 Strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the flickr group page.

Morning overcast sun. Nikon D200, 50mm.

The 100 Strangers website can be found at 100strangers.com/

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Neighborhood Watch

41/100 Billy