This morning, Andrea and her son Jeffery are racing toward their front door with excitement.
The first time this happened, they didn’t know what to think. “I was like what is this?” Jeffery recalls. They didn’t know then, that ‘it’ would be consistently delivered to their doorstep on this day for more than a decade. “You open the door to go somewhere, and you’re like, ‘Oh! It’s March 26,” Jeffery explains. “And there’s fruit salad!”
This morning, their mysterious gift was accompanied by Big Foot candy. As always, they were wrapped in brown paper with a handwritten label: ‘Speshl Saskwatch Froot Salad.’ Andrea and Jeffery assume that’s an inexperienced speller’s attempt at ‘Special Sasquatch Fruit Salad.’ They also say it was delivered by the mythical creature.
“Today is Sasquatch Day!” Andrea cheers. She has set up a display in her living room with some of the creature’s past gifts. “Sometimes Sasquatch leaves hair on the can.” Andrea points to a brown tuft caught in a piece of twine wrapped around the can. There are also some of the personalized, humorous notes that she says the Sasquatch always writes. “We can have a huge laugh once a year,” Andrea says. “It’s amazing.”
Andrea and Jeffery aren’t the only ones to receive ‘Froot Salad’ this morning. Dozens of people up and down Vancouver Island thanked Sasquatch on social media. But none of them admitted to ever seeing the ‘unidentifiable can-man’ in action. “It’s probably easier to find Santa,” Jeffery says with a smile. “Because he’s always at malls.”
This story took a twist when videographer Andrew Garland finished that interview and found a can of ‘Froot Salad’ on his windshield in Nanaimo. At the same time I received one by mail at the station in Victoria. Andrew went to a nearby forest in search of the elusive creature. Although he caught something on camera running away with big feet, the elusive character declined an interview. Meanwhile, I made contact with Todd, who says he received his first can 15 years ago.
“March 26 is Sasquatch Day,” Todd explains. “It’s the day Sasquatch comes down from the hills and throws fruit salad at the good boys and girls.”
Todd also sends video that he claims shows actual footage of the benevolent beast working during the early hours of Sasquatch Day. If you watch it, you’ll see a character that looks like a sasquatch, covered from head to toe in brown fur, delivering cans to various doorsteps in the dark.
Todd says the celebration began 15 years ago with two cans. Now he helps Sasquatch travel more than 200 kilometres to drop off many more. “He was out for five and an half hours last night, delivering 65 cans.”
While the Easter Bunny eggs are sweeter, and the Tooth Fairy trades are more lucrative, Todd says he’s grateful that his newborn received a Sasquatch can first. He hopes his boy grows up to share his focus on fun. “You know it doesn’t have to be a national holiday, you can have some fruit salad on the 26th,” Todd explains. “Have fun whenever you can.”
Because when you believe in inspiring fun, whether it’s Sasquatch Day or not, you’ll know the best is ‘yeti’ to come.
