Sidney
at his fly tying desk, in a photo taken in April, 1999.
t
was the summer of 1939 when Sidney's aunt from the United States overheard
him say he wanted to purchase flies for fishing.
As it turns out, this aunt had a druggist friend back in the U.S. who was a fly fishing enthusiast. Upon her return, she mentioned her nephew's request to the man and before too long he sent Sidney a package of sports flies. Sidney recalls how in a letter accompanying the package there was a prophetic note which said, "You should tie your own."
Sidney didn't pay much attention to the note.
"I didn't know what he was talking about so I didn't do anything about it. It didn't occur to me that I could tie my own flies," he remembers now with a laugh.
That Christmas, another package from the druggist arrived. To Sidney's surprise, he opened it to find a top-grade fly-tying kit and a book of instructions by Herters Materials of Wasceca, Minnesota.
At first, he didn't
know what to think. But when he opened the instruction book, complete
with full color photographs of the delicate flies, he was mesmerized
by the kaleidoscope which the bird feathers produced when fused together
on a steel hook.
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