Poor Alpine Al.
Bereft of his alpenhorn. Left ignominiously to resemble a lumberjack puffing on a big blunt — which, of course, does have a significant constituency in Smithers.
It’s funny how you sometimes don’t realize how beloved something is until it’s damaged or gone. In fact, when the alpenhorn went missing last week, it took three days before anyone thought to alert us.
When we immediately called the RCMP, they didn’t know it was gone either. And most of us realized in that three days, we had all passed right by the iconic statue that heralds the entrance to Main Street and hadn’t noticed.
Easy enough to do with something so familiar. While Al is something tourists remember, those of us who live here can be forgiven for kind of taking him for granted.
LAST WEEK: In loo of
The horn wasn’t really missing.
The Town had noticed and staff quickly trundled it away to the public works yard pending repair.
People were still outraged, though. Who would perpetrate such a brazen act of malicious vandalism?
There are other possible explanations. No, not aliens.
We do live in a place that fluctuates in temperature by nearly 80 Celcius degrees and where the horn broke off was the weak point. Perhaps, as unlikely as it might seem, it was an act of nature.
More likely, it could have been accidental. Maybe someone climbed up there to get a picture with the seven-foot-tall mascot. It would not be the first time. Perhaps that led to some horsing around and… oops.
One would hope that someone who did accidentally mar a beloved public work of art would come clean and report it. Isn’t that what we are all taught at some point in our lives?
In any event, Town works is on the job and before we know it, Al will be back to his former glory.
The police are also on the job and, hopefully, their investigation will turn up a culprit.
In the meantime, Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays to all.