Your Paw-Paw used to make his main living by trapping animals for the fur. He trapped mink, muskrat, anything worth money because we were so poor. He would stretch the furs over a rack outside to dry and get the odor out. But at night or when it rained, he had to bring the furs inside and hang them from eyelet hooks in the ceiling. They stunk terribly! After they dried, we would spread them out on the kitchen floor for the furrier to examine. By then the skin sides felt like plastic. The furrier would separate the furs according to value (mink was most valuable but the one Daddy caught the least of). Then the furrier would take out a big wad of money and pay Daddy for his take.

I never really understood the whole deal though. One night when I was 6 or 7 years old, I looked up at Daddy and asked, "Why do people buy these?" They stunk so badly that I couldn't imagine what people did with them. Daddy told me that people bought the furs for coats. And I said, "Those poor people; they must be poorer than us!"--From Mom (Judy Brining 1999).