Mark Stover took me out on his lobster boat around 1980. Memory is not one of my trump cards these days, but it was thereabouts. At that time I think he was fishing in close by and urchining too. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Mark.) I can hear the phone ringing already: “Close, but no cigar.”
Anyway, I wanted to get a photograph for one of our early postcard runs. I thought it might be neat, and a real tourist fave, to have a local fisherman measuring up a lobster in full gear in front of a lighthouse. All the elements.
Ed “The Hutch” Hutchins advised me on subjects back then, and I did a lot of what he thought would sell. He had a very keen marketing sense, and he was willing to give us some display space in his stores. That was big for us, just starting out in a very competitive market. Down East, Maine Scene and some big out of state companies had huge presence in local shops.
So back to Captain Mark.
We boomed it for Burnt Island then maneuvered the boat so I could arrange a photo of Mark with a lobster, a trap on the rail and all the fixins. There was only one problem: Mark had a long ponytail.
There's nothing wrong with long ponytails — don't start in on me now! But it didn't seem like quite the right “image” for our new genuine down home, state-of-the-art, super deluxe postcard, at that time. So I cropped the ponytail out of the photo and printed the card. “Bad dog.” Mark noticed!
Mark still has a ponytail, and it's real nice, say I of the aggressively receding hairline. And he is a fine musician with a great band and lots of adoring fans. But, by gum, I still cropped his ponytail out of the photo. Not intentionally.
Sorry, Mark, it's a fine ponytail. One of these days I'll get a photo of you and your hair. That will surely rock!