Once again my favourite radio station, Triple J, has come up with another fascinating story.
I suppose my ears always prick up now when I hear mention of a quirky internet story, and I thought this one was really good, and the guys being interviewed were funny and interesting.
Nate and Dev Sturdey, from Melbourne, were living in Banff in Canada, and while emptying a bin in a hotel room where he worked, Nate found a picture of a happy-looking guy, that had obviously been thrown away. He kept the picture, took it home and put it up on his fridge. Visitors would often ask who the guy in the picture was, and he would say, “That’s Happy Guy”, and proceed to tell the story of how he had come by the picture.
Almost seven years later he decided to search for this guy, and brother Dev set up a FaceBook group called “Who Is Happy Guy?”
There is also a Happy Guy website, but there is no detail there, just the picture:-
And there is an interview on ABC Radio National (Australia), which you can listen to here (towards the bottom of the page on the left side):-
http://www.abc.net.au/bestof/archive/20080526.htm
The FaceBook group now has almost 3,000 members, and without even knowing it, Happy Guy has become a celebrity.
And of course, thanks to the worldwide reach of the internet, they have actually found Happy Guy. His name is Paul Daggett, and he still lives in Banff in Canada.
When the Banff Tourist Board heard about the story, they decided it was such a good publicity opportunity, and offered to fly the guys out from Melbourne to Banff to meet Happy Guy.
They set off in a couple of days, on June 8th. Good luck guys, what an adventure. I wish I could make it to your leaving party.
As Dev says on his FaceBook posting, “Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination….”
I couldn’t agree more! The exciting part is that you never quite know where that journey is going to take you.
Update 2019 – The Happy Guy… is no more. I wonder what happened to him?