I simply couldn’t believe my ears.
Most times when I am out and about doing the reporter thing and someone tells me something I believe him or her. I mean it takes all kinds of people to overpopulate a planet this size, so I’ve learned to go along to get along.
This makes me an easy mark at the poker table. But as far as being a reporter goes my theory is that, for the most part, the stories that I write for this small weekly community newspaper aren’t my stories at all. Rather they are the stories of those whose event I am covering.
So if they tell me that they have a family tradition dating back to 1792 to paint the milk cow red and white on Christmas Eve I’ll go ahead and give them the benefit of the doubt and believe them.
But I was talking to Cecelia Bryan at the Midway Volunteer Appreciation event last weekend and what she told me made me ask her three or four times to confirm what I’d heard.
She was telling me that she and her husband Doug were going to take the RV out for one more trip this fall. Now I knew from covering the Good Sam’s Club gatherings in Midway in the past that she and Doug were members of the group.
So I heard her tell me that they were going to meet up with other members from the Son of Sam’s to go camping. I thought that was a rather odd way to refer to the group and asked her if they really call themselves the Son of Sam’s?
There was a large crowd around and someone overheard my question and they didn’t believe it either. This bystander commented on it quite loudly, so I didn’t hear Celia’s answer and I asked her a third time—do you really call yourselves the Son of Sam’s?
Like I say you meet all kinds of people when you are a reporter and you have to learn to go with the flow.
For example, take the vintage BMW motorcycle club that comes to Midway each June. The bikes they ride are air-cooled road bikes, no longer in production but still very much loved as a classic bike. Being air-cooled enthusiasts this group has put their tongue firmly in their cheek and adopted the title Air-Heads for their group; and they call their leader the Air Marshall.
So why should I not believe the members of the Good Sam’s RV club might start calling themselves the Son of Sam’s?
Well, for one thing—and those of you too young to remember the ’70s might not know this—but there was a serial killer in New York City back then who went by the name of the Son of Sam.
So I couldn’t believe my ears—and in fact, I shouldn’t have believed them either. Cecelia was telling me that she and Doug were going to meet up with the South Okanagan Good Sam’s—also known as the Sun Oka Sam’s.
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If you have an Internet connection you can see the TV advertisement that the fall fair is using in the Okanagan. It is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHGGWckSDvw. The weather forecast through the fair weekend is looking great this year. Celebrating 100 years of 4-H in British Columbia—this will truly be a fair to remember. See you there!