Good Old Days, Were Not Really All That Good!
Neil:
I love your article, yet I am really glad that those good old days are behind us...
I miss some of what you and I grew up with (I was born in 1949). But I am glad that over the past 60 years many things have improved for the better.
Being a "Junior Grade Old Fxxt", I am trying to avoid starting sentences with...."When I was your age, we didn't have.....!" I enjoy most of the modern conveniences we have today. Sometimes I wonder about, such as now that I have 999 channels on my television (had only 3 channels back in the 50's), why I cannot find anything worth watching? Growing up, I use to go to the local movie house every week, now there nothing at the movie complexes worth seeing?
If not for the Personnel Computer, and the Internet, I would not have found FAOL! Never learned how to Tie Fly Patterns (using Al Campbell's 60-part "Fly Tying Series" or "Fly Of The Week"), "Build a Graphite Fly Rod", Improve my Fly Casting, or Improve Fly Fishing knowledge! I would not have taken "Fish-In" trips to South Dakota, Catskills, Idaho, or Texas!
I do have my own paperback copy of "Noll Guide to Trout Flies...and how to tie them" by Raymond R. Camp I found it is a Used Book Store, and I have found it useful and interesting. Yet without the help of Al Campbell's instructions on Fly Tying, I would have been lost. Without Ron Lucas explaining "Atlantic Salmon" or "Just Old Flies" I would not have learned about a Past that I never knew, and how we stand on the shoulders of so many who shared the same passion that they past on to us, to pass forward to many future generations. We live in the present, and wisdom & knowledge that use to sit on dusty shelves in the archives of various Libraries, is now readily available to anyone who wants to know.
Recently I read an article in the 2009 Fly Tyer (Winter) magazine, on the "Hewitt Skater" pattern. I became fascinated with the fly pattern and the man who originated the pattern; Dan Rupe gave me one of those flies at the 1999 FAOL Fish-In at Hill City SD. I did not know then the importance of that fly pattern or the life of the person who created it (Edward Ringwood Hewitt (1866-1957) and just who he was.
I found out some amazing things! He was a very rich man, from a wealthy family, also the orginator of the "Bivisible" fly pattern, an author, inventor, chemist, and during his life was a major player in many of our countries leading company's, colleges, and other public institutions!
I am always surprised when during my searches of the World Wide Web, that FAOL articles keep appearing, as part of my search!Through fly fishing and this site, I am learning more about a history that I have never known!
Today with modern technology that we have, the "Knowledge of the Whole World" is at our finger tips! All we have to do, is reach out, and find what we wish to know!
I do not know what the future will be like, but with access of all past, the future has to become better educated, as to the successes and the failures of those who came before us, and how we can better correct past mistakes, to give a brighter future for those who are not yet born!
Parnelli
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