My interest in fur also began about age 3. There is a family snapshot of me wearing an old fur coat on my grandmother's porch in the middle 1940s, but I have no other recollection of the event. It was a flat fur, but I have no idea what kind. The only relative who had a fur was my favorite aunt, who had a mink jacket that I saw her wear only twice while I was growing up, but I had to feel it each time.
It was not until I was in graduate school in the mid-1960s that I really woke up to fur. Walking past a furrier's one day I noticed a man's, woman's, and child's wolverine parkas in the window. It was a real revalation to me that there were furs for men. A few weeks after that Look Magazine ran a photo showing men's furs that Macy's had imported from Britain. The model in the middle of the photo was wearing a thick, fluffy red fox jacket. How I wanted to exchange places with him! While I was looking for my first job, I was seriously thinking about ordering a fake raccoon coat out of a Sears sale catalog, but my mother talked me out of it, telling me to save my money for a real fur. Mothers can be so perceptive at times!
Once I was on my own and had my own apartment I was free to indulge in furs as much as my finances would allow, and I have (as another thread shows). My reaction to furs, whether men's or women's, has always been to wonder what it would feel like to be wrapped up in that particular coat. And I have always had a strong preference for the long-haired furs: coyote, fox, Finnish raccoon, lynx. Where this came from I haven't the slightest idea, probably some long-forgotten experience.
Furry Yooper
