Andre Puyans....
I guess getting older makes you aware when people you know or have met, pass on unexpected. We've lost several people of stature in our sport, recently.
Originally read about Mr. Puyans passing on Blanton's site and have been thinking about it ever since.... Altho sad, his passing is cause for celebration of his contributions/life. This gives me the opportunity to recall my limited but interesting experience meeting him in his shop during the late 60's....
During that time, I drove to his shop in a converted home in pacheco, CA. The living room served as the retail shop and the kitchen area was used to die/prepare materials for sale. The ownership of that shop was an ill-fated partnership of Andre and Dave Inks. I'd never seen a shop of that type before but have seen several, since....
Andre was a large person (stature/personality). After the greeting, we discussed my need to locate some good Grizzly necks. As was the case at the time, high quality Grizzly necks were just not available.... So we ended up discussing waterborn insect types.... I realized during that conversation that I was so uninformed.... At any rate, Mr. Puyans treated me with respect and provided reading materials that described his loop wing dry flies plus others. All the while keeping up an ongoing dialogue with his partner and others in the kitchen.
I came away with what I considered a wake up call to educate myself about a subject I thought was already informed on and new found respect for Mr. Puyans.... Unfortunately, I never saw Mr. Puyans in person after that meeting. Even so, we still have his writings an contributions to the sport as his legacy.
Well, enough rambling. Tomorrow night, I'm going to heft a shot of Irish to celebrate the life/times of Andre Puyans and others who prededed him.
"America is a country which produces citizens who will cross the ocean to fight for democracy but won't cross the street to vote."
Author unknown
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