Local Club Says No To Chicken Salad

By WBØRUR, on the scene

GRAND RAVINE, South Dakota –A fist fight broke out Sunday afternoon at a local amateur radio club meeting in downtown Grand Ravine. The Mt. Agnes Radio Society was discussing Field Day plans in the private room of the Village Inn while their regular meeting location, Golden Corral, undergoes much needed renovation.

Tempers boiled over as the conversation went from radios to antennas to food. Local ham radio operator Walter “Scruffy” Smith volunteered to bring his “famous” chicken salad to feed the group of 20 Field Day volunteers.  Instantly, five men stood up and walked to the door, stating they “…could not handle another case of ‘back door trots’ like last year.”

Defiantly, the 82-year-old Smith challenged the group to “say that to his face” and began swinging clenched fists.  Although the five men were far across the room, police say Smith’s roundhouse blow connected with 79-year-old Maggie Peterson, wife of former club president Max Peterson of Lincolnville County.

Peterson, a former Roller Derby dame in previous decades, was unscathed by the blow and in fact, challenged Smith “to take another shot if he was man enough.”

Police add it is unlikely Smith would have actually hit anyone if he hadn’t been thrown off-balance due to his arthritic hip and the body contact may have come as Smith was attempting to catch himself from falling.

The meeting was immediately adjourned when Village Inn manager Marguerite Thomas stormed into the room and declared there would be no senior discounts “if this ruckus doesn’t stop.”

For now, meal plans remain undecided for Field Day in Grand Ravine, South Dakota.

### hamhijinks.com

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