4/29/10

How do remember what you lose in a fire? We've had a month of waking up in the middle of the night and saying things like... "What about the camera tripods? Where were they?" You are supposed to take photos and keep a record to be reimbursed. But that is hard to do. And life isn't that tidy.

Our fire was in the basement. Our laundry room is in the basement. How many clothes were waiting for their turn in the washing machine?

One of the things we lost due to smoke damage were fur and leather coats. Fur coats are no longer PC. But there was a time prior to PETA when furs were quite accepted. If you are an animal rights activist you need to stop reading right now. Because not only did I have one fur, I had two and so did all my friends.

I wanted a fur coat, but not any fur. Furs are bulky. I wanted a coat that didn't make me look like a refrigerator with legs. And I found one. It had a white mink collar and cuffs and beautiful herringbone brown and white panels between white mink columns. It was fabulous and it was expensive. I've owned cars that cost less.

But I was single. My money was my own, so I bought it.

The salesman was a tall, slender, elegant man who had perfected condescension. When I asked, "what fur is this?" He replied in a snooty tone, "It's fitch. It's a very rare European fur."

I took the coat home and modeled it for my father. When he asked, "what fur is this?" I replied mimicking the snooty tone, "It's fitch. It's a very rare European fur."

My father is not a man who's willing to let things pass. He looked it up. Fitch is not quite as rare a European animal as I'd thought. It's polecat. That's right. I owned a European skunk coat.

Later when fur coats were deemed to be cruel, I would tell people. "It's okay. It's skunk. They deserved to die." No one ever threw paint on me.