Letter from the Editor – Sally – July 15/09

Better babysitter than Sally.

Edmonton, do you ever wonder what goes into preparing these kinds of local news stories for you? Let me tell you a story that illustrates the kind of adversity we face on a day-to-day basis (and for anyone who was following me on twitter last night, I’m not even going to bring up the guy at KFC who tried to steal my tripod. Because it just got weirder from there).

Last night I headed off to the north end to do a story on E-ville Roller Derby. I arrived at the arena and was about to head inside, when a child ran up to me and asked if I had a phone.

Immediately, I wondered if he knew the KFC tripod guy and if this was some elaborate scam they were running. I asked him why he needed a phone. He told me some kids on the nearby playground had knives and were going to stab him and his friends.

*sigh*

I asked him how old he was.

“Eleven.”

I looked over to see a gaggle of about 8 kids- some boys, some girls- shouting back and forth at each other.

Better babysitter than Sally.

“So they have knives?”

“Yep. They said they’re going to stab us.”

So I called the police, with whom I got to have this conversation:

“Yeah, um, so….I don’t know if this qualifies as an emergency or not, but I’m outside an arena in the North end and a little kid ran up to me and says that someone on the playground has a knife.”

“Who is the child?”

“I don’t know, just a kid playing here.”

“And what are you doing?”

“I’m here to videotape roller derby.”

“I’m sorry?”

“…uh, I’m working.”

“Okay. Do you know these children?”

Better babysitter than Sally.

“No. This one kid just ran up to me. And I haven’t seen any knives or any….oh, wait, I see the knives. Yes, three children, aged about 8 to 11, have large kitchen knives. Oh, and I think they just saw this kid talking to me, and now they’re leaving the park.”

“We’ll send someone out immediately.”

End of phone call.

And so, like a plot device from a movie with Ted Danson and Magnum PI and that Jewish actor, I became a temporary de-facto guardian for four kids. Four kids who, in that gasp-y little kid way, alternated between telling me repeatedly and with great excitement that they had almost been stabbed, and then asking me to push them on the swings. Oh, what a sight it must’ve been to see me, weighted down, sherpa-style, by 2 bags of recording equipment and maintaining a death grip on my tripod, all the while, pushing a row of kids on swings.

THAT is what goes into this website, #yeg. And you know what? I still got the Roller Derby story. Beat that, Steinke.