Rob Illingworth is living in Canada. He is the one who surprised the world
with a lot of unseen Buddy Holly photos from a package tour
in Canada in 1958.
Some of these photos were part of the Proud Galleries London Photo Show
in 2009, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Buddy's death.
I like all his pics on Flickr and especially the one with
the Holly frames on, that's the reason why I made this page.
Rob Illingworth from Canada, a real Buddy fan
from the beginning,
wearing his Buddy frames in 1961.
" Sharon encouraged me to post this.(Sharon is Rob's wife)
I put on my old Holly frames tonight and the fact
that I'm older was incontrovertible.
"Hans, here is the photo of the fire tower..
The tower was located near Frying Pan Lake,
50 miles south of Kapuskasing Ontario."
I was 21 at the time, spending the summer
alone in a fire tower in Northern Ontario.
I was there for four months.
"The second photo was taken from behind the pilot of a Beaver float
plane as it was landing on the lake in May of 1965 to open the tower
for the season."
The plane came every two weeks with my food
and then I was on my own. A life changing experience.
Photos: By kind courtesy of Rob Illingworth
In 1965 I talked Sharon into taking the same tower for our honeymoon.
We had a small cabin some distance from the tower.
The summer didn't seem long at all. "
When Rob saw this new page for the very first time, he sent me an e-mail:
" I liked your bit about my photo and glass frames and was impressed you found a photo of an Ontario tower.
The tower you found is more elaborate than the one I was assigned. Mine was 100 feet high with an outside ladder to climb. At the top was a 6 sided cabin maybe 7 - 8 feet across.
Windows slid down to open and you entered through a trap door in the floor. I will send you a photo of it in the winter.
