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VERNON MAKES NATIONAL HEADLINES! (and yannic excited)
Posted: 11/6/2003, 9:43 pm
by thirdhour
Now this is a bizzarre one, but it counts, eh.
Vernon residents support 'wild boys'
Last Updated Mon, 03 Nov 2003 21:54:52
VERNON, B.C. - Residents of Vernon, B.C., have rallied behind two brothers who claim they grew up in complete isolation in the remote backwoods of the province.
Brothers surface in city, claiming to have been raised in the bush
Tom and Will Green, who have no identification, and say they have never been to school or watched television, have been put up in a hotel and given food.
The so-called "wild boys" surfaced in Vernon this summer, living in the bush and surviving on food from local residents. Vernon is in the Okanagan Valley in southern B.C., east of Vancouver. Vernon's population is about 45,000.
Tom, 22, and Will, 16, attracted the attention of local social workers, residents and politicians, including Alliance MP Darrel Stinson of federal riding of Okanagan-Shuswap. Stinson believes the brothers' story could be true.
"I spent a lot of my former life in the bush," Stinson told the Vancouver Province. "I once met a person who hadn't been out in society since 1918. We took him out in 1976 and he flipped out seeing cars and stoplights. So is it possible, you bet it is."
Two weeks ago, the two men, who believe they were born in Canada, left the wilderness. They have met with staff from Stinson's office and have been put up in a hotel and given money.
They say they were born in the wilderness and raised in isolation by their mom and dad, who they have identified as Mary and Joseph Green.
They claim their mother taught them to read, using books she bought when she would leave the wilderness.
The brothers, described as wearing dirty clothes and looking emaciated, will not say where their parents are.
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/03/wild031103
The best part of this entire story is that the first time I heard about it was on the cover of The Province (BC Newspaper). They had the headline, and the huge picture was of...my brother's fort when he was 14-15, that was behind Kal Store, where the boys had been living. So now everyone in BC has seen my brother's fort (complete with hotbox room, of course
). They called it "The Hole". Seriously, it's awesome, and built entirely out of matierals they found near the railroad tracks near there.
Posted: 11/6/2003, 9:45 pm
by Dabekk
ok, Yannic, now just calm down . . .
Posted: 11/6/2003, 9:48 pm
by thirdhour
c'mon, if you live in a place where we make the news like once every ten years, this is pretty exciting
Posted: 11/6/2003, 10:16 pm
by Henrietta
My town got on CNN once over a huge cheerleading controversy! It was great.
So...how can they have been totally isolated if they lived in your brother's fort...?
Posted: 11/6/2003, 10:23 pm
by xoNoDoubt69
our town gets attention but its for bad things . Like parents starving their kids
Posted: 11/6/2003, 11:05 pm
by thirdhour
The only other time I can remember that Vernon was big news was when we had the biggest family shooting in the history of Canada. It was horrible. My oldest brother's friend got killed, along with I think 7 of his family members. He was only 13 I think, and his sister was even younger
And Cass, they lived in the bush near Revolstoke up until this summer, with their parents. Then this summer, they hitch-hiked to Vernon, and were either living in or near my brother's fort. They had contact with people then, they were buying food and such.
Posted: 11/6/2003, 11:15 pm
by Henrietta
Ahh, I see.
Posted: 11/6/2003, 11:33 pm
by I AM ME
i remember tahtin the paper, i thought of you as soon as i read it. it was reffered to as "Bush Boys" in our paper
Posted: 11/6/2003, 11:42 pm
by thirdhour
hee hee, same here
i thought it was kind of funny that not only was our local little paper reporting the story, they had a substory about all the other news people that were coming to town to get the story.
When you are reporting about other people reporting, thats pretty sad
Posted: 11/7/2003, 12:12 am
by Dabekk
Yannic, I've gotta tell you, I didn't read the article, I got as far as the headline and figured it'd be too boring.
Posted: 11/7/2003, 10:04 am
by Blister
Tom Green, eh?
The only time my town has been in the headlines was when it was the epicentre of an earthquake last year. Very exciting.
Posted: 11/7/2003, 4:49 pm
by thirdhour
Joel, the story was like half a page long. HOW boring could it be?
Someone's lazy....
Posted: 11/7/2003, 4:55 pm
by Dr. Hobo
hey yannic.. how far is chilliwack from you?
like.. where exactly is it? lol.. one of my suitemates is goin there for some football thing.. and he said its an hour from kelowna.. apparently.. and that its a 15 hour bus ride to there.. that means im 15 hours by bus to sun peaks! :O
if thats true.. holy hell
oh and the story is cool
halifax gets in the news cuz well it blew up .. (damn stupid ships captains can kiss my ass), the g-7 meetings, and the flight that crashed off the coast of peggy's cove.. oh and the world juniors, world hockey championships and curling and figure skating stuff that takes place there.. and the memorial cup.. and ummm.. what else..
i dunno about saskatoon.. i dont consider it to be truly "home" yet
and jax .. well its florida.. we're gettin the superbowl
Posted: 11/8/2003, 10:50 pm
by thirdhour
Hey, what IS the memorial cup? I was in Kelowna today, and on the big "Welcome to Kelowna" sign it said home of this years memorial cup. Me and my friend spent the whole day questioning the vagueness of that
Hmmmm, Chilliwack, eh? It's on the way to Vancouver, which is like 5-5 and a half hours...So probably about 3 and a half from Vernon. Its outside of Vancouver, not close enough to be a suburb, really, but I still consider it "on the coast"
When you're on the TransCan, its right before Abbotsford.
And Sun Peaks sucks! Come to Silver Star!
Posted: 11/8/2003, 11:45 pm
by christa lynn
Chilliwack (aka "The Wack") is approx 1 hour and 15 minutes from Vancouver given relatively nice traffic. Agassiz (where I'm from) is 15 minutes beyond that (but I've heard people say they can do it in 7). Abbotsford is about 25 minutes from Chilliwack in the direction of Vancouver. And yes, Silver Star is better than Sun Peaks.
Posted: 11/9/2003, 5:15 am
by Dr. Hobo
thanks for the info on skiing and the wack
as for the memorial cup
its the tourney held every year in various places between the teams from the QMJHL, WHL and OHL champions + the host team.. (if the host team wins one of those titles, the second placed team from that league goes) ..
its for the CHL championships.. so kelowna rockets, halifax mooseheads, etc etc.. out in your neck of the woods, kelowna, kamloops and kootenay all have teams.. its great hockey to watch hehe.. i used to goto mooseheads games in halifax and they were fun..
the CHL is considered to be the major contributor to NHL rosters and as a result.. the mem cup in kelowna will be highly scouted and will feature (and more than likely produce) quite a few players already drafted or who'll go high up this upcoming year..
where is silver star exactly? i only know of sun peaks cuz my friend lives in williams lake and she always raved about it
Posted: 11/9/2003, 12:15 pm
by Neil
Bill Pullman (from "While You Were Sleeping", "Spaceballs", and "Independence Day") is from this shithole town.
Every several years he comes back......they show Spaceballs like ALL weekend at the local theater, and he signs autographs I guess.
Poor guy......he actually returns.
Posted: 11/9/2003, 10:50 pm
by thirdhour
Silver Star's like 20 mins North-East of Vernon. My mom owns (well, half) a house up there.
vernon vipers suck
I actually didnt realize Vernon and Kelowna are in different leagues
Meh, I've only ever been to one vipers game in my life.
hey, christa, I'm going to be at UBC later this month for a weekend, visiting some friends. Do you live on campus?
Posted: 11/10/2003, 12:15 am
by Dr. Hobo
i thought vernon had a team cuz i vaguely remember the habs drafting someone from it.. but i think it was some junior b team tho and he's now playin hockey for some NCAA team and stuff.. the kids 17 or 18 and like.. 6'5" 200 something lbs.. its nuts