Chad Torp, Survivor!

I'm not one to dwell on things that didn't pan out the way I wanted them to, so let's just say that the sandwich board idea didn't work. It started off okay, even though the board I had made was too large to fit me but too small for me to get easily in and out of. After struggling with it for 20 minutes, I was finally able to slip the board over my head and get my arms inside the straps, which it turned out were too tight.

I walked around the downtown Alta Coma area wearing my "Alta Coma Typewriters" board, and for the first hour or so, nobody bothered me.  In fact, for that one hour, nobody paid any attention to me at all. After that, though, things got strange, then rowdy, then dangerous.  I don't want to get into details because I still don't fully understand what went wrong, even after reading the riot police lieutenant's official report.

Some lessons were learned, though, and that's the important thing. Here are a few, mainly for my own benefit:

• It's near impossible to run for your life while wearing a sandwich board.
• A sandwich board provides only minimal protection against rocks, bottles and shrapnel. 
• Innocent, seemingly insignificant (but well-meaning) actions on my part can have disastrous consequences in a very short period of time.
• I am claustrophobic. 

I think it's good that I know the Alta Coma area well, because once I regained consciousness I began to recognize certain landmarks that eventually led me back to my store.  It was well after 11pm by the time I got back. The sandwich board, my wallet, my tray of free samples of ribbon, my shoes and my handbills are all gone, but my sense of determination remains intact.

Alta Coma Typewriters is open for business!