Pin Trading at Hudson Bay

Actually slowed down enough to place pins on a board and set up a pin trading table at Cocacola's pin trading center at "The Bay". Paul and Christy were in charge and had one spare table. I enjoyed asking everyone what the highlight of the games was. Needless to say, many answered the USA - Canada Hockey Game.

Couldn't, and still can't help smiling, just thinking again about that game. In the morning CTV was predicting a 5-1 victory for the Canadians. I knew it would be a spectacular ending for Canada to win and of course I knew I would be happy no matter what happened but 5-1!! When I heard that, I knew we must work hard for them to earn gold, and work hard we did! All the Canadians who surrounded us upstairs in the Swiss House didn't know that we were from USA until the famous 27 seconds-goal! It was fun to watch their amazed faces. (The most amazing thing of course for all of us is what happened AFTER the game when we ALL got into the most fantastic Closing Ceremony!)

The manager of the Fairmount Hotel told me he enjoyed watching the amazed faces of the crowd as well. There was a Canadian group in the big lobby watching the big screen and a USA crowd was watching a smaller screen behind the bar on the side of the lobby, which was transmitted about 20 seconds or so ahead of the big screen. That 27-second goal caused an uproar so loud that Canadians all turned their heads to see what was happening at the bar and missed the actual play.

Anyway, while at "The Bay" pin trading, I met so many fun folks. About half were foreigners and half were local Vancouverites. Several VANOC and VANOC volunteers were also trading. There were a few former olympians and a few funny Olympic freaks like me. If they brought their kids I gave them stickers of former mascots so they could learn the history of the games. Some were just starting so I gave them pins. Those who were interested in the history of the games, I gave first day issue sailing stamp post cards from the 1984 games. Some were delighted to get my leftover broadcasting tickets from AOB, Atlanta 1996 with the beautifully designed hologram.

I made about 15 trades. I'll write my thoughts about pins and what I think about their value on another post. But for now, I must say I surprised myself. Somehow I could not trade a couple of pins that I fully intended to trade, even when offered three for one! AaiiiYA! Crrrrrazzzy in Canada!