While putting together our remembrance of Upper Valley sports icon Stretch Gillam last week, I went to the Valley News photo archive and typed “Stretch” into the search field. The search returned 349 hits of images that contained the word “stretch” in the caption going back to 2003, when the Valley News started using digital cameras.
From stretching athletes to bread dough to a police dog and a cow, I scrolled slowly through the images looking for Gillam’s distinct features. I could have added his last name to the search, but I was absorbed in the variety of images and how they transported my mind back to my early days in the Upper Valley. I’ve only been photographing here for 13 years, which is nothing next to Gillam’s 58 years in Upper Valley sports.
So, to reflect on the passage of time, I’m sharing just a few of those images found in my search.
