A Peek Inside The Hide-And-Seek
Posted at 5:35 AM on September 1, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(26 Comments)
At last Friday's State Fair broadcast, the Where's Eric Game came down to a single moment 3 minutes before the end of the show with Eric Ringham on the line from his secret location and Leslie Ball and Ochen Kaylan on the phone from an area near the FFA building, searching the landscape with the help of our listener/volunteer contingent - Michelle, Carri, Maggie and Amanda.
They were working off these five clues:
- I can see a Chris Coleman sign.
- I can see sheep.
- I am between two bodies of water.
- I can see a big weathervane.
- If I get tired of waiting for Ochen and Leslie, I can take a nap in my choice of three hammocks.
The new rules necessary to make "Where's Eric" fit inside our 2 hour window made it difficult for the search team to look in more than two places after hearing the clues. Leslie Ball told me they searched the area around the DNR building first.
"Once it was clear he wasn't there, we headed up to the 4H bldg, then between the 4H and fine arts, then just north of fine arts and all along that service drive that wraps around the eco bldg and feeds into Cosgrove. We saw plenty of Coleman lawn signs in the yards across the street, there are weathervanes and pictures of sheep in several places... but we never found the hammocks - or Eric, obviously! When I was on the phone with you, we were retracing our steps heading south along that service drive... when I asked you how many minutes we had left, I had SUCH a strong feeling that we were right by him! I almost handed the phone off to Ochen, just so I could search the area one more time. Where was he? "
Now the truth can be told. The search team went in the right direction and was, in fact, within sight of Eric as he looked out from a balcony just off the cafeteria on the second floor of the FFA building.
Here's the view from that balcony, looking right down the service drive Leslie mentioned.
Eric says that while we were on the phone he saw a group of people walking towards his location and noticed that his dreaded adversaries were among those approaching.
"Ochen and Leslie were looking right at me", said Eric. Or so he thought.
Eric reports that he ducked.
The rest is history.
Here's how the balcony looks from the ground.
The hammocks were strung across the metal supports for a stairway leading down a half flight from the second floor cafeteria to the balcony - visible to Eric but not visible from the ground. A violation? I'll leave it to you.
One thing seems certain - If we had kept the phone lines open another minute or so, the whole thing might have had a different outcome! That's the drama of the "Where's Eric" game. Too bad I didn't hang with it a while longer.
Have you ever experienced the sudden, miraculous discovery of a lost object you thought you would never find again?
Comments (26)
I have a pair of pig earrings... made from clay, bright pink, with the pig in sections, brass bead between pig head and pig belly and another brass bead between the belly and the tail. Much cuter than they sound. Given to me by friend, so way too much emotional value considering. When I lost one of them in January I looked everywhere for days and days. In April, when the snow finally melted in the front yard, I found it partially buried in the mud, probably stepped on by the postal carrier. I was able to salvage it and consider it a lost treasure found!
AND, I had a great time on Friday, nice to meet more of our Trial Balloon community!
Good morning, Radio Heartlanders! Unfortunately or fortunately, finding lost treasures in my house happens often -- Too often to remember a single incidence this early in the morning.
I love the Find Eric game...!.
I didn't know there was a balcony to the 4H building! Tough break for Ochen and Leslie - they were so close! I wouldn't have thought to look up either; very clever on Eric's part.
Sherrilee, that's amazing you found your earring. If I lose one, it's gone for good. I'm afraid I don't have any good stories like that, only my Captain Jack Sparrow toy that I use in my classroom as a screen-pull, because I'm too short to reach it otherwise. Kids like to abduct him and keep him prisoner for a period of time at least once a year, but he always finds his way back to my desk. I always wonder what kind of pirate-y adventures they've taken him on, but being as we're talking about high school students here, perhaps it's better that I don't know.
Lora - isn't it nice to know we share the same Captain Jack Sparrow fetish? Love, Mom
I've had a hankerin' to hear the Monkees, It's a little bit me, it's a little bit you. Do ya reckon ya got it? (This writing style is for Kay H's benefit, now that she's a rootin' tootin' cowgirl.)
Gardening tools are the main thing I misplace and find where I don't expect them. Usually I have just left them sitting some place and I run across them by acident. I did find a trowel after more than a year when I cleaned out my compost pile.
I haven't been very much interested in the where's Eric game when I heard it over the radio in the past, but I did think it was fun seeing it live.
hi Kay!
Sherrilee, i know how you feel about your ear rings. i had some beautiful, blue bears (a totem for me) and one disappeared when i was moving my Mom from her home. (wore them for strength and perseverance that day) and to my sadness, have never found it. but did find a replacement in Bayfield bead shop and the nice woman made me a another pair in a few minutes. so then what did i do? i gave that pair to a friend who needed them more than i did. i still have the one. why don't we all start wearing two different ear rings? i know i have at least 10 singles i could bring out.
We got to see the show on Friday by pure dumb luck. I've fallen off the Heartlander Bandwagon of late, so hadn't kept up with the goings on, or we would have found Farmer Eric for sure. I am Lucas' mom, and we were right by the Little Farmhands, but were giving the John Deer exhibit a thorough going over, looking for a manure spreader (corporate yes-man clue-but we couldn't find that piece of equipment anywhere-the urbanization of Machinery Hill, I guess), having not seen the picture. Next year, we will be prepared!
We had a lot more luck earlier this summer, as we quested after Lucas' beloved Piggy, who had left us to go exploring on his own during a camping trip to Madeline Island. I figured he was gone for good, but when we went back 2 weeks later (too long a story to tell) and checked our former campsite, he was sitting calmly under one of the trees, waiting for us.
Catherine
ps, my fair was made complete by getting to sing along with Ann Reid and other Heartlanders on the original Fair song.
Good morning all. I've never been good at find-it games, or finding lost things.
I had a wonderful time on Friday. I've always wanted to go to the live broadcasts in the past, but never had the perseverance to get up and go. Hey, maybe I did find something. Some persverance!
Thanks Dale! Love hearing it. Possible future TB topic for discussion: Who was the hottest monkee?
I think Donna is using the Monkees to find her lost youth. ...The song brings back memories of pajama parties and Baskin Robins ice cream cakes in bright pink and green. Dale I can see you trying to get us to remember the kind of September many of us had in junior high!
THANKS!
Greetings! Wish I could have been at the fair -- no jury duty at all, but other things got in the way. Love the group picture of bloggers!
Just wondering how TGitHat typed a blog entry 25 minutes before showtime? He gave great ambiance for those of us unable to attend. Maybe next tine ...
Too funny - using the Monkees to find your lost youth (for the record, Mike Nesmith is my fave).
We have a stuffed Clifford dog that likes to go on walks on his own - but he keeps turning back up, which is good since he's a favorite of my daughter's.
The other recently found long-lost item was a driver bit for my drill (a nice magnetic one with the sleeve that pulls out so driving in screws is much much easier) - I was pretty convinced it had been lost at a theater somewhere after building a set. I really wished I'd had it recently for a repair at my mom's where the extra length of the bit would have been handy. I found it a couple days after finishing that repair...on my dresser (must have come home in a pocket after a day at the theater - and wound up on the dresser rather than in the basement with my tools).
I believe Davy Jones was by far the hottest Monkee -- and the British accent to boot!
Jerry Orbach had a lovely voice. It's easy to forget that many of the great actors on TV started out on Broadway.
I was suprised to find some of the Keeper CDs from the Morning Show were for sale at the MPR booth at the fair. I don't have any of those and I was pleased to be able to buy one, the Catch and Release CD.
The person at the booth said they are available at the a Pretty Good Goods Store on line, but I couldn't find them. Are they really available some place or was I given wrong information at the booth?
losing stuff is the main topic at my house everyday. i lose keys, telephones wallets tickets and it is amazing they always turn up. well not always (where the heck could that phone have disappeared to) my wife is obsessed by finding it NOW. my kids never get to lose a mitten in the winter... life stops until it is found. and i laugh at the way we turn life upside down and then there they are whereever we forgot we set them an hour or a day or a week ago. it all works out doesn't it.
the monkees were a kick. they forgot they were an invented group who lipsinked their songs. toward the end they thought their taste matttered and that is when we started getting some of the strang stuff instead of neil diamond and bobby hart we got mickey and mike doing their imatation of songwriters. i saw them 10 years ago at a revival (without mike) and it was one of those moments where you realize sometimes not being famous may be better than being famous for 2 years and then disappearing into the sunset trying to get back into the limelight. i think there is a harry chapin song about that.
eric and ann were great along with the local talent. ditch lilies and bojono
keep it up.
Yesterday I was at the Fair and saw (and heard!) Billy McLaughlin. What a great entertainer and what an emotional story. Any chance you can play something by Billy? (If any of the Radioheartlanders are going to the Fair today, Billy will be performing in Heritage Square this evening!)
I planted some Siberian iris about 15 years ago, and they bloomed for a couple of years and were then overrun with an invasive flower I was foolish enough to plant. I thought the Iris had just died out.Two years ago I cleared out the invasive plant and found a few shoots of the iris still valiantly trying to find the sun. Now I have a large clump of Iris again.
Howdy, y'all! (thanks, donna, for the cowgirl talk :-)
i admit right now that i am quite good at picking up the accents of people speaking around me--almost unconsciously--so i reckon i'll be drawling like a ranchhand in no time!
well, i too am having the lost-and-found experience almost daily--i unpack a box, put things away in logical places here at the cabin, then forget where i put them, and there is no one giving me any clues, either! i'm still looking for the lid of my favorite microwave cookpot, but happily HAVE found my computer glasses again! helps with this small type (sigh).
i love the monkees still--really enjoyed their TV show as a kid---and yeah, liked them all, but davy jones was first, mike was second, and the other two were funny but you wouldn't want to date them :-) ... not your steppin stone, last train to clarksville--those are good songs!
hurrah for captain jack sparrow---even davy jones can't hold a candle to him...
how about a cowboy song, dale!?!?!
Dale, thanks for playing Under the Quarter Moon for me! (sorry, facebook status has changed already) It's almost time for the Grapefruit Moon. (she says in Tom Waits voice) hint, hint.
Joanne, my wife and I got to the MPR booth at about 7:30 and Mike & Dale had a laptop set up for blogging purposes. They made it easy.
I lose and find stuff all the time. I guess as far as a 'moment of re-discovery' that struck me, I was looking over one of my stories that's (hopefully) about to get published and I was struck by how much I really enjoyed it. I know that writers aren't supposed to like their work but as I paged through it, I found myself pleasantly shocked and surprised that it was my story. I remembered thinking it was 'pretty good' but after walking away from it for a few months, then coming back to it, I thought, "...wow..."
Loved the Monkees! Used to watch re-runs every weekday afternoon on early cable. First season (when things were still somewhat cohesive) works more for me than the disfunctional second season. They really had some great guest stars that would help them out. Stan Freberg, Liberace, Rose Marie, Lon Chaney Jr, Julie Newmar, Wally Cox, ...even Bobby Sherman (remember him?) among others. My fave was Mike with his hat but Peter came a close second for being able to deliver a good line. My favorite Monkees song only rarely gets played. It was called, "Daily Nightly," a very psychadelic-influenced piece but very cool.
thanks for the Greg Brown canning song, Dale - reminds me that i should inform folks that the Lake Superior Sustainable Farming Association and Lake Superior Energy Association Harvest Festival and Energy Fair (whew!) is Saturday September 12 from 9 a.m. to 4 pm at Bayfront Park in Duluth. AND a concert with Greg Brown (opening is Rachel Kilgour) starts at 4:30 pm. admission is $4 before 4 pm and $10 after 4 pm..
check things out at Harvest Festival lots of wonderful family things to do - a GREAT farmers' market with 40 vendors this year - workshops - crafts - petting zoo - and great food.
i'll put this up again if that's ok. come up and join us!!
Searching for my lost youth?? I was just yanking your chains about the hottest monkee. You guys are so immature! :D
When I looked more carefully, I was able to find the Keepers Catch and Release CD at the MPR store plus a used version of another Keepers CD ($99), but didn't see some of the other Keepers CDs that were available at the MPR booth at the fair.
When I looked more carefully, I was able to find the Keepers Catch and Release CD at the MPR store plus a used version of another Keepers CD ($99), but didn't see some of the other Keepers CDs that were available at the MPR booth at the fair.
Oops! I didn't want to make the double posting.
his exercise of brand-new computer skills if being fuelled by my DESPERATE, years-long search for an old "Keepers" CD from "The Morning Show" that included, in particular, PRISCILLA HERDMAN's "Waltzing With Bears", Ann Reed's "AT THE FAIR", and CARYL P. WEISS'S "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm". New or used. WHO CAN HELP?!
P.S. Dale and Jim Ed, I haven't the words to express how much I miss you and your irreplaceable, magical mix of music on MPR!
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