It was August 9th, 1988. It was a warm, sunny day in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I remember it well because when the big news broke, I took the CHAB microphone to Main Street to get reaction from locals. Most I talked to were in a state of disbelief, just like I was.
It was on that day the Edmonton Oilers traded The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, to the Los Angeles Kings. Remember?
A sports story, a hockey story, was the top story across the country - on radio news, the national news on TV and on the front pages of newspapers.
Back in those days, we got our national and regional news on the Canadian Press / Broadcast News teletype machine. Bells would ring if they were sending a big story. I'd never heard the bells go off like they did that day.
I got reaction from a number of local businesspeople and downtown shoppers alike that day and I'll never forget one young man in particular. I asked him what he thought about Gretzky getting traded and he said, "I don't care. It's all fake anyway."
I said, "Fake? Hockey's not fake!"
And he looked at me like I was an idiot and he said, "Yes, it is."