Radio and Newspaper -- the Story

It always seems to take longer than I expect to recover and get re-organized after an event. Here is the story behind the teaser post from December third.

Friday evening at the Roseburg Christmas Craft Fair, I was sitting and spinning at our booth. Pam, Marilyn, and Sheryl were standing at the back of the booth. A gentleman wandered into the booth and asked if anybody wanted to be on the radio. The three exchanged quick glances and then Pam pointed at me.

Nominated.

Pam and I talked about what I would say as we walked over to do the interview and we agreed I would emphasize the Christmas Craft Fair rather than our booth in an effort to encourage listeners to come visit the whole craft fair and all the booths.

One of our local radio stations was attempting to do a live broadcast from the Christmas fair. After several false starts due to technical difficulties, the interviewer introduced me and explained to the radio audience how I was sitting and weaving at our booth.

Yes, the word she used was, "weaving".

Gulp.

I was mentally prepared for a lot of questions. Introduced as weaving, however, was not something I was prepared for. After a second, I said, "That's right, I'm sitting in front of my booth spinning some lovely alpaca fiber to make handspun yarn …" After that very smooth transition from weaving to spinning, I proceeded to start mumbling and thoroughly mangle my words.

Just as I was fully inserting both feet into my mouth, the technical guy interrupted and said we were off the air due to additional technical difficulties. Actually, I think the technical difficulties began prior to my interview, so I don't think any of the interview made it onto the air. Considering how I mangled my carefully considered words, perhaps it's just as well.

On Saturday, a photographer from the News-Review, our local newspaper, spent quite a bit of time in the booth. He took some pictures of the booth and spent a lot of time taking pictures of me at the spinning wheel. I tried to focus on what I was doing and to ignore him, so I'm not sure if he was taking pictures of me spinning or talking to customers. I think that he was trying to capture expressions on faces when people felt how soft our alpaca teddy bears were.

And to explain this, I must digress.

One of the predictable features at a show is the way people react to alpaca. At fiber shows, the reaction is different because spinners know what alpaca feels like. At general shows, though, people think they're walking by a booth full of clothing. If they're even looking at the clothing at all, they're looking at cut, style, and color. They stop to look at the spinning wheel or to talk to me, or because the person in front of them stopped. I go into my spiel talking about alpaca. They listen politely. They're skeptical -- and why shouldn't they be. After all, the advertising world is full of inflated claims and while I'm sure I'm enthusiastic, my claims probably sound no more believable than half a million others we're faced with every day.

I ask, "Have you ever felt alpaca fiber to feel how soft it is?"

Bystanders shake their heads and look a little put on the spot.

Then, I pull out my secret weapon -- really soft alpaca fiber! At the Christmas fair, I was using a basket full of alpaca teddy bears.

I hand the basket of teddy bears to the bystander. They touch it out of politeness. Their face lights up, and they exclaim something like, "Oh, that's really soft!" Then, they take the fiber from my hands and hand it to a more hesitant member of the group and say, "Here, feel this." The hesitant person is now put on the spot and has to touch the fiber. They do so and another face lights up.

Happens every time.

Now back to our photographer. I think he was trying to capture the expression on people's faces when they felt how soft the alpaca was. There is an instant when faces really light up and I suspect it's a very photogenic moment if you can press the shutter at the right time.

The photographer said the pictures, if they were used, would be in the Sunday News-Review. To my knowledge, they weren't used.

I guess I'm zero for two on media coverage from the Christmas Fair.

Still, I think it's very interesting that I'm getting coverage. We must be doing something right. There are over 400 vendors at the Christmas fair and some of those people have been selling at the fair for twenty or thirty years.