I would like to clear up a bit of a camp urban legend that I was told happened back in the 80′s. The premise was that Donny Pearson was watching TV in the A-frame and happened to tune in ‘The Day After‘ which was a mini-series about a fictional nuclear war. He thought that it was really happening and sounded the alarm at camp. Everybody was freaking out until finally a call was made back to Regina when the truth was revealed.
Can anyone confirm this actually happened and if so provide some details?
Confirmed:
I contacted Marjorie and got this great account:
“Donny came back from a day off and said; “Well, it looks like we won’t be here tomorrow.” When I asked him why, he informed me that the USA had launched their missiles and that the Russians had done the same. We ran into the camp director’s cabin – I think that it was Arnie Hein at the time and he was on a day off and sure enough we saw the end of the newscast when the newscaster was telling his wife to take the kids and start driving to Canada.
We gathered the counsellors together and told them to put their kids to bed and then come to the dining hall. We told them what Donny had told us and what we’d seen and then we all sat around together telling stories and sharing each other’s company. I think that it was in August because there was a big harvest moon in the sky to confirm our fears.
What we couldn’t understand was why there wasn’t more noise in the surrounding areas and why parents weren’t rushing to camp to pick up their children. There was only quiet. Later on that evening someone did call home and it was then that we were told that it was all a television show. There were no commercials during the show and it seemed authentic.
We were all happy and rejoicing at camp.
The next morning at camp, Malcolm Neill read an inspirational poem at flagpole that had us all crying and hugging. The campers had no idea what was going on.”
I am sure more details of this will fall out of the woodwork. I don’t think you can make some of these stories and events up if you tried.
