I remember addressing this point in the now long-lost discussion on the old Vantage Net board. Somewhere in a box of files filled with miscellaneous papers in another house in another state, a printout of that thread may exist - but if I ever find it, it will probably be by accident. Anyway, I’m trying to remember my thoughts on this.
It may be that if Sam said “25 years ago” he was not only giving a rough estimate (“give or take five years”) but he may also have been trying to throw Vicki off. When you get to an advanced age (say, over 45 – not saying whether or not I’m there yet), it can be very difficult to place past events accurately. This may be fudging with what’s stated (“25 years ago”), but if Sam guesses the truth about Victoria, he may not want to be the person responsible for helping her uncover that truth.
Regarding Jamison Collins’ age if he did father Victoria, I remember working that out, and he definitely would have been up there in age, at least in his 60s. That does give me some pause as to whether he was her father. Partly because of that, I gravitated more towards the second scenario I outlined, where Jamison fathered Betty Hanscomb, who in turn was Victoria’s mother.