These pals have been taking exactly the same photo every 5 years since 1982

Some friends come and go, and others are for life.

The latter is definitely true for these five mates – and they have the photographic evidence to prove it.

Dickson and Burney met when they were six or seven, and the other pals joined their gang when they teenagers at Santa Barbara High School in California, where they graduated as part of the class of 1981.

“In 1987 we realised we would all be at the cabin again and I suggested it would be a great idea to reproduce it,” Wardlaw said. “It was fun but we still didn’t plan on doing it ever again.”

Wardlaw said: “In 1997 we decided it would be great to keep doing this for as long as we could, and we made a vow to keep it going every five years.”

While some things remain constant, much hasn’t. Wardlaw said: “For us personally, the things that have changed the most are hair lines, waistlines, hair colour and all those things that come with age.”

“When we first came to the cabin there was no TV, barely any radio and the phone was a party line (a local telephone circuit shared by many people). We still don’t have cell reception at the cabin, but we have internet now.

And in case you were wondering what was in the jar Molony is clutching, in 1982 it was a cockroach that the boys had caught. Wardlaw said: “He was hungry so we gave him a butterscotch. We also though he would be lonely so we gave him a photo of actor Robert Young (From the very old shows Marcus Welby MD and Father Knows Best).”

They’ve even got a mock-up of what the gang will look like in 3017 – and it’s not the cockroach that’s in a jar now.