EJ Dailey's Chair - 12/26/07
EJ was one of my father's heroes and when we lived in Plattsburgh, NY in '71 we ran across his place in Ogdensburg. He invited me to stay with him for a week and learn about fur handling and to help with his trap line.
He had been writing for FFG for many decades at that point and was reduced to a crusty old chain-smoking geezer. I liked the guy. He made a lot of sense when it came to trapping. For instance, I had a huge desire to trap a mink. He pointed out that I would catch plenty of mink just as soon as I trapped where there were lots of mink. Nothing tough about it. He was exactly right.
For the week I trapped with him I worked my butt off in the afternoons skinning and stretching fur, but rode around in EJ's old truck checking traps from daylight to noon or so. We caught foxes, coon, skunks, 'rats and mink. Seems beaver and otter were not legal there then and we did not catch any.
When my father came to pick me up EJ had just received a new office chair. His old oak, swivel, office chair was tossed outside. My father asked for and received the old chair "Yeah, take that old piece of crap!"
EJ said he wrote everything he ever wrote from that chair from his start (in the '20s I believe) to that day. My father restored the old chair and wrote from it himself from then until his death in '98. When EJ died my father wrote his obit in FFG... and considered it a high point.
Yesterday my mother gave me EJ's chair. Have not picked it up yet, but hope to see the quality of my writing improving soon!
art
He had been writing for FFG for many decades at that point and was reduced to a crusty old chain-smoking geezer. I liked the guy. He made a lot of sense when it came to trapping. For instance, I had a huge desire to trap a mink. He pointed out that I would catch plenty of mink just as soon as I trapped where there were lots of mink. Nothing tough about it. He was exactly right.
For the week I trapped with him I worked my butt off in the afternoons skinning and stretching fur, but rode around in EJ's old truck checking traps from daylight to noon or so. We caught foxes, coon, skunks, 'rats and mink. Seems beaver and otter were not legal there then and we did not catch any.
When my father came to pick me up EJ had just received a new office chair. His old oak, swivel, office chair was tossed outside. My father asked for and received the old chair "Yeah, take that old piece of crap!"
EJ said he wrote everything he ever wrote from that chair from his start (in the '20s I believe) to that day. My father restored the old chair and wrote from it himself from then until his death in '98. When EJ died my father wrote his obit in FFG... and considered it a high point.
Yesterday my mother gave me EJ's chair. Have not picked it up yet, but hope to see the quality of my writing improving soon!
art