Four friends posed for a photo on vacation in 1972. Over 50 years later, they recreated it

(CNN) — In the photo, four young women walk arm in arm, smiling and laughing, on a beach promenade. They’re dressed in mini skirts and flip flops, and there’s what looks like a 1960s Ford Corsair in the background. This is clearly a snapshot from a bygone era, but there’s something about the picture — the womens’ expressions, their laughs — that captures a timeless and universal feeling of joy, youth and adventure.

For the four women in the photo, Marion Bamforth, Sue Morris, Carol Ansbro and Mary Helliwell, the picture is a firm favorite. Taken over 50 years ago on a group vacation to the English seaside town of Torquay, Devon, the photo’s since become symbolic of their now decades-long friendship. Whenever they see the picture, they’re transported back to the excitement of that first trip together.

“It’s always been our memory of Torquay,” Sue Morris tells CNN Travel. “The iconic photograph — which is why I got the idea of trying to recreate it.”

‘The iconic photograph’

Bamforth, Morris, Ansbro and Helliwell were 17 when the photo was taken, “by one of these roving photographers that used to roam the promenade and prey on tourists like us,” as Morris recalls it.

It was the summer of 1972 and the four high school classmates — who grew up in the city of Halifax, in the north of England — were staying in a rented caravan in coastal Devon, in southwest England. It was a week of laughs, staying out late, flirting with boys in fish and chip shops, sunburn, swapping clothes, sharing secrets and making memories by the seaside.

Fast forward to 2024 and Bamforth, Morris, Ansbro and Helliwell remain firm friends. They’ve been by each other’s sides as they’ve carved out careers, fallen in love, brought up families and gone through heartbreak and grief.

Over the years, the foursome have enjoyed adventures together to destinations including Majorca and Portugal.

And this year, to celebrate turning 70, they decided to return to Torquay, where it all began.

“We always said, when we were younger, that one day we would go back to Torquay,” Ansbro tells CNN Travel. “And because we were reaching the big 7-0, we decided to finally go. Then Susan decided she’d love to recreate the picture that we’d taken when we were 17. But at first me, Mary and Marion weren’t very keen…”

This hesitation mostly revolved around the thought of wearing clothes that at least evoked, if not directly resembled, outfits they’d last worn in the early 1970s (“I don’t wear skirts or dresses now,” says Bamforth, who recalls that in the original photo, three of the women are wearing near-identical skirts from then-UK shopping stalwart Tammy Girl).

Concern was heightened by the fact the trip was scheduled for late fall (“It was going to be October and we were going to be freezing cold in those mini skirts…” says Ansbro).

But in the end, it didn’t take much for Morris to win her friends over. She’s always been the archivist of the group, putting together photo albums and scrapbooks of their adventures over the years (“Sue is very good at doing things like that,” says Helliwell). Morris convinced her friends that the recreation would be a fun way to mark their 70th birthdays and toast their decades of friendship.

So, in the lead up to the Torquay trip, the four friends spent hours scouring thrift stores and online second-hand sales, searching for clothes that resembled their teenage outfits.

And then the next thing they knew, the group were squeezed into a Torquay public bathroom, stripping off their October-ready winter coats and getting changed into their teenage-adjacent summer dresses and bright-colored blouses (“We didn’t want to be walking around with those clothes on all day long,” says Morris.)

The public bathroom changing experience involved some last minute creativity — such as when Ansbro realized her shirt didn’t really fit, so she “just hacked off the bottom.” There were a lot of laughs as the foursome helped one another into clothing and helped arrange each other’s hair.

Then, aided by a member of staff at their hotel, the group tracked down the exact spot where the original picture was taken. A couple of other friends, Jane Brook and Carole Connell, who were also on the trip, took the recreated photo. Brook and Connell directed Bamforth, Morris, Ansbro and Helliwell, helping them accurately recreate their original poses.

The result? A pretty note-perfect recreation: in the 2024 photo, Bamforth, Morris, Ansbro and Helliwell, are once again captured mid-walk, arms linked, smiles on their faces.

When the four friends saw the recreated photo, and then saw it side by side with the original, they were struck by the lumps in their throats.

“It was both emotional and we were elated,” says Morris.

“We were really pleased with how the latest photo turned out,” says Bamforth, who adds that she “agrees with Sue, it was very emotional.”

Bamforth was also happy that “it was a good photo of all of us.”

“It was good fun with the best company,” says Helliwell.

“It was a great idea by Susan,” agrees Ansbro, who found herself thinking of “all that’s happened to us in between the pics.”

“That day we recreated the photo is a cherished memory too, now,” she adds.

The ‘beauty’ of friendship

A few weeks after they returned from Torquay, the group decided to submit the two photos, with an accompanying write-up by Ansbro’s husband, to the Halifax Courier, their local newspaper in West Yorkshire, England. The paper published the story, which was subsequently picked up by other regional British papers.

And then, suddenly the 1970s photo and the recent recreation started spreading across social media.

“Every day it was somewhere else,” says Morris. “We couldn’t believe it. We still can’t believe it.”

“And so many girls are commenting underneath posts saying, ‘We’ll have to do that, we’ll have to do that when we retire,’” says Helliwell.

The four friends are heartened to think they might have inspired others to recreate a favorite photo with their best friends — or even just encouraged someone to give an old friend a call.

Morris says staying in touch with friends over the decades is all about “making time.”

Naturally, she adds, if you’re raising a family, much of your time will be spent with your family unit, especially when your kids are young.

“But just make sure that you still make time for your friends,” Morris says. “It doesn’t have to be a lot. And then later, the more time that you’ve got, the more time you can devote to your friends. But never let it go, don’t ever let it go.”

While Bamforth, Morris and Helliwell still live pretty close to one another, Ansbro now spends most of her time in Spain. But the group stays in touch via messaging app WhatsApp — they’ve got an active group text thread and enjoy regular video calls. For this interview, CNN Travel jumped on one of the video calls with the foursome and witnessed a cacophony of laughs, memories, in-jokes, affectionate teasing and future planning.

The four friends are currently looking forward to a Christmas meet-up in a couple of weeks, and they’re also busy planning their next trip — to the seaside town of Blackpool, in the north of England, in January, with two other good friends in tow.

“There’s just something about going out with your girlfriends,” says Morris. “The memory of when you were all 17, getting ready, putting your makeup on, putting lipstick on — that’s there with you too.”

“At 17, getting ready, we were so giddy and excited,” says Ansbro. “And we’re still giddy now we’re 70.”

“When we’re all going out together, that feeling is still there,” says Morris.

The difference, the group suggests, is that today they don’t take their friendship for granted. They’ve seen each other navigate tough times — divorce, the loss of a partner, caring for elderly parents — they know nothing’s guaranteed in life, and enjoying the moment with people you love is all you can do.

“Knowing that you’ve got people that genuinely care, it makes you feel safe,” says Ansbro.

“That’s the beauty of this friendship,” says Bamforth. “We’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs over the years, but we’ve always been there for each other.”

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