Here’s how to turn a red paper clip into a house in Saskatchewan.
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In 2005, 25-year-old Kyle MacDonald and his girlfriend, were living in Montreal in a small, $600-a-month apartment. MacDonald had dabbled in travel writing and worked occasionally for his father, but he needed better employment. As he thought about ways to advance his life, he looked down at his résumé, held together by a red paper clip. As a teenager, he had heard of a game called Bigger and Better, which was a type of scavenger hunt. The idea was that you would go door to door with a small item and ask for something bigger. He’d heard about one fellow who had started with an old shoe and ended the night with a car.
In a moment of inspiration, MacDonald decided that he would trade the red paper clip and try to end up with a house. On July 12, he placed a photo of his red paper clip on Craigslist with a notice that he was looking to trade up for something bigger.
...THERE’S A WAY
In his first trade, he got a wooden fish pen. He bartered that for a knob made by a potter in Seattle. The knob was swapped for a Coleman grill in Massachusetts, which was promptly exchanged for a generator in California. A man from Queens offered a vintage Budweiser sign, and MacDonald drove to make the exchange. As he reported his progress on his blog, he gained some attention. A Montreal radio host heard of his quest and offered his snowmobile. The media was now paying more attention to MacDonald. On a news program, he joked that he would trade the snowmobile for anything but a trip to Yahk, British Columbia. The next day he was offered a trip to Yahk.
His mission was picking up momentum. At a quick pace, he traded for a van, then a recording contract, and then a year of rent. Through his blog he was gaining fans who were rooting him on with each trade forward. Then, at one point he traded a day with Alice Cooper for a KISS snow globe. Many in his growing base of fans were outraged. How could he have made such a stupid trade! He received hate mail. People began calling his quest a sham—where was the quest for the house?
The most common crime in Canada is “theft under $5,000”.
But about a week later, MacDonald had parlayed the snow globe into a speaking role in a Hollywood film with Corbin Bernsen. About one year and 14 exchanges later, MacDonald traded the movie role for a house in the town of Kipling, Saskatchewan, population 1,140.
On July 12, 2006, he accepted the keys to the house in a ceremony that included many of the people he had made trades with along the way. At the event, he asked Corinna Haight, who now had the famous red paper clip, if he could borrow it. He twisted the clip into a ring and asked his girlfriend to marry him. She accepted and wore the ring for that day, then returning it to the owner.
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EATON TRIFLES
Irish-Canadian immigrant Timothy Eaton founded T. Eaton Co. Limited in the 1860s, which grew from a dry goods business into Canada’s largest retail chain by the mid-20th century. Notably, it was the first Canadian store to utilize mail-order catalogs.
• The oddest item ever offered through the Eaton catalog: a house. The Neils Hogenson House (eventually named after its owner) was mail-ordered in 1917. Everything from the largest doors and windows to the individual bolts and screws were packaged in Winnipeg, put on a train, and shipped to Stirling, Alberta, where it was paid for at the station. The total cost: a whopping $1,577, which, thankfully, included assembly instructions. The house remains in Stirling, in its original state.
• A Saskatchewan town was named Eaton, after the stores, in 1919. Two years later, it was changed to Eatonia to avoid confusion with the nearby Eston.
• When Timothy Eaton died in 1907, his son and heir, John, spent some of his newfound inheritance on a private rail car. It was extremely opulent, featuring three bedrooms, a living room, dining room, and a steward’s quarters. Since 1972, it’s been on display in Heritage Park Historical Village, a living-history museum in Calgary.
100 Mile House is a town in B.C. named because of its distance from Lillooet.