It's all Marty's fault

It took 25 years, but my buddy Marty Forbes finally  agreed to do something with Tait Talk.

The first time I called Marty with the idea was 1988 when I was staying at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver.

Somehow, I got into little screw-top bottles with my favorite adult beverage.

Marty was program director of KISS FM in Vancouver.

I was writing a daily editorial on K-97 called Tait Talk,  but it had a different slant.

I have cerebral palsy and don’t speak that clearly. I always wanted to be in the radio business, but my voice didn’t let me.

So I wrote the copy. And announcers Randy Kilburn, Robin Allen and Barrie Harrison (shown bellow) read my words.

The focus of the show was to create awareness about people with disabilities.

I always wanted to take it to a national level.

So I called Marty, that afternoon in Vancouver, and pitched the idea.

There was a long pause at the end of the phone line.

“It might not work here in Vancouver,” Marty said, which was a nice way of saying ‘have some more fun with the little screw-top bottles.'

So I did.

Then, on Thursday, Marty and I had lunch with Bryn Griffiths at Ruth’s Chris in Edmonton.

“Why aren’t you writing a blog?” Marty asked, in that tone of voice that tells me I should know better.

Frankly, I did not have an answer.

I’ve been writing newspaper columns since 1979 for the Edmonton Journal, but a blog?

I’ve been humming and hawing.

Marty reminded me of how fortunate I am to meet hundreds of people in Edmonton who have great stories to tell.

So we’re going to do that. In fact, I have one in coming up about my son Darren and Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe sharing a great moment in west Edmonton Friday.

We might even have a few opinions on things in Edmonton. I hear they are building a new arena in town …

And we will also share some tender moments.

Marty looked up from his Rueben Sandwich.

“Why don’t you call it Tait Talk?” he said — and then offered to set things up for me.

So here we go.

And I will try to stay away from little bottles with screw-tops.

Hey look at me - I'm blogging!

Yes this is my Tait Talk blog.  

After many years of writing for the Edmonton Journal I'm branching out and launching this brand new blog.

With Tait Talk my plan is to continue focussing on what is going on in the great city of Edmonton.

Tait Talk will talk about amateur sports - all the wonderful community work done here - but most importantly it will be about people and especially the amazing folks that I meet day to day in Edmonton who make this city such a wonderful place to live.

Often space is limited in the paper but now I can add more content (and pictures, etc)  to compliment what makes it to the final copy of the newspaper.

Most importantly PLEASE continue to call me - email me - or write me about what YOU would like to see in this blog and in the newspaper.

If you're on Facebook and/or Twitter PLEASE feel free to forward TAIT TALK to your friends as well.  The more the merrier I say.

I'm reachable @camtait on Twitter - and at camtait@telus.net - via email.