A terrific photographer from Oil City named Jerry Sowden had a nice idea a few years back, taking the lead from the Day in the life folks who made picture coffee table books a huge thing in the 80's and 90's, Jerry wanted to do a weekend in the life of Venango County and asked if I would be involved. I knew very little about Venengo County but thought it would be fun to be one of the photographers who just went out and looked for things and people to shoot--to look for stories. There is a little stretch of Venengo County that Route 27 winds down into between East Mead and Titusville that I had traveled on many times. I told Jerry I'd focus my efforts up there in that part of the county. He seemed happy about this because he didn't really have any other photographers who were interested in that area. So I set out with gas prices nearly $4 a gallon and went feature and story hunting. I decided to go to church and stopped in and asked if it would be ok if I witnessed and photographed this one church in Chapmanville. Well that was a goldmine that led to several other stories and leads and I followed up on the ones I could. I made this portrait of a World War 2 soldier who was a prisoner of war. I chatted with him for over an hour and made several pictures of him. I can't remember his name off hand and don't have my notes handy. I do know he passed away about a year ago. He gave me a clip of bullets, he was proud that he made his own bullets. I told him I didn't shoot, but he insisted I take them. I still don't know what to do with them, but they do look cool on my mantle. The project unfortunately never got funded and even though it turned into a week in the life of Venango County and I spent a second weekend exploring and meeting new people, it just seemed to have died. I did like this portrait though. Photograph by Richard Sayer