So here at the fly shop we get to see all kinds of interesting and pretty things beyond rods and reels and the kids really love it when the boxes of new stuff come in. They can see the inventory before it goes on the shelves. The fly tying stuff is the best, with its brightly-colored spools of thread, yarn and feathers.
The fly tying area is, in effect, the craft area for the guys (but don't call it that). Instead of scrap booking materials we have vices, thread, tools, feathers and um, a very small amount of animal fur - rabbit to be specific.
While all the fishing we do is catch and release and the flies we use are artificial, we do use real materials - like feathers - in the construction of the flies. Most of these materials are foraged, or are by-products of other commercial activities. Rarely is something ever killed in the name of fly fishing.
Yesterday Juju was in the store, "helping" the staff unpack a box of fly-tying materials when one of the staff members, Ange, decided to play a joke on her. She picked up a rabbit skin and put it in front of her face "Look, Juju! I'm two faced!"
Juju was very confused and her face showed it. She held out her hands to receive the rabbit skin, which, since it was a face, came complete with ears and whiskers. The fact that it didn't have eyes made it even more freaky, if you can imagine that. With eyes it almost could have been some kind of weird, pre-stuffed animal (we've been to Build-a-Bear, we know that some animals need stuffing). But there were no eyes.
Juju looked at the face, then looked at Ange, then back to the face. Finally, she spoke, and with all the disgusted, outraged bewilderment her six-year old voice could muster, she said "Who ARE you people?"
Indeed.
P.s., Thanks for the title Austin! ;-)
