I have mentioned that I'm from Vancouver. And that Vancouver is the ultimate mobile society. And that almost nobody is actually *from* Vancouver: they all moved to Vancouver from someplace else. And that Port Alberni is a bit different, in that regard.
You know those small towns where, even if you've been there living there for twenty years, you're still a newcomer? That's not Port Alberni. In Port Alberni, you are a newcomer if your *grandparents* weren't born here. Port Alberni is a pretty stable society. Yes, a few people are moving here, but they are definitely in the minority.
When you lose someone important, and particularly when you lose a spouse, you lose the life that you had. I not only lost my wife; and my best friend; and the person that I most want to talk to in any situation; but, since I was her caregiver for about a decade, I also lost my job. So I pretty much lost my entire life, and ended up, first in Delta and then here, with absolutely no meaning or purpose to my life. This, of course, does not help with the depression et cetera.
So, as a suicidal and depressed grieving widower, I am trying to rebuild a life. I am trying to find some purpose. So I am doing volunteer work, and, with various organizations in town, I am proposing that I can help in certain ways. However, in a mill town, where not only the high school, but even the college, doesn't have any computer courses, this hasn't been terribly easy. So I have been proposing various programs, to various organizations, in areas where I think I can contribute. I have been having enormous difficulties.
Initially, I just put this down to being new in town. I'm new here, nobody knows me, why should anybody be paying any attention to me, or taking any interest in what I am proposing? But, as I tried to start various things, and tried to figure out how to publicize them, I became increasingly frustrated. There didn't seem to be any possible way to publicize any activity in Port Alberni.
Well, it turns out that this was not a problem with me not knowing how to publicize things in Port Alberni. Nobody publicizes things in Port Alberni. They don't have to.
Allow me to explain. Everybody has been here forever. They all do the same things. Year after year. If it hasn't been done, every year, for the last fifty years, it isn't going to happen in Port Alberni. Everything that happens has happened before, in exactly the same venue, at exactly the same time, and in exactly the same way. Nobody needs to publicize anything, because nothing new happens. Everybody already knows what is going to happen, because it has happened, every year, for the last fifty years (and probably longer). Everybody knows what is coming up, when it is going to happen, where it is going to happen, and so they don't need anyone to tell them, because everybody just knows. (This is maybe a little bit hard on newcomers, who come into town, and don't get told what events are happening, because nobody needs to publicize everything anything, because everybody already knows what's going to happen, and when, and how, but, I mean, those people are newcomers anyways, so who cares about them, right?)
But this also means that there isn't any way to publicize anything in town, because nobody *needs* to publicize anything in town. Yes, there is a newspaper. Nobody reads it, unless they think that there's a good chance that they got a picture in the paper this week. There is a radio station. I'm not quite sure if anybody does listen to it, but if they do, it simply is background music. Shaw Cable has, as it always does, a community cable channel. Nobody watches that, unless they want to watch Bombers games. Nobody needs to know what is going to happen, because they already know what is going to happen. So there is no way to do publicity or promotion in Port Alberni. Which makes it a bit difficult to start new activities.
Previously:
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