1 Frank
Frank Tattrie is unique among the unique.
Frank is a wiry, long haired, bearded, six four hillbilly who always wears a Red Fox hat. You know the kind where he just skinned and cured the fox with all its parts bunched it up and put it on his head, He added two black beady glass eyes that stare at you. You don't know weather to look into Frank's eyes or the Fox. Don't mistake me. This is not a scraggly piece of rat fur but an incredibly lush and thick winter coat Red Fox in pristine shape.
Frank knows everybody.
More important, everybody knows Frank.
Like the joke about the Pope giving audience in Vatican Square.
Frank has a private audience with the Pope and he takes him out on the balcony to see the great crowd of people gathered for the blessing.
A tourist turns to someone in the crowd and asks; "Who's that guy up there with Frank."
Frank is a mountain man's Mountain Man, a throwback to the real thing.
Frank has a part Cherokee wife who looks 100%. Black silky hair to her waist with all the features and skin except for her piercing green eyes. She also is drop-dead-gorgeous, sexy and totally devoted to Frank. He named her Red Fox for obvious reasons. Red Fox is also very smart, cleaver and self assured. She dresses 'native' with skin tight buckskins. She is always well endowed with her own Red Fox draped in the most provocative and enticing ways. A walking advertisement for Frank's business ... Furs and skins.
Frank had just turned 21 and was out trapping in the woods in the height of winter with snow having fallen to record depth. Prime pelt time. He met Red Fox. She was 18 and wasn't Red Fox yet but she had been poaching for a deer. She had just put an arrow through the brain of a young buck. He dropped in his tracks. No, she didn't do it with a primitive Indian Bow and Arrow. She did it with a state-of-the-art Fred Bear Compound bow and a silent feather carbon fiber arrow. She's a deadly shot from better than a hundred yards and didn't want to attract attention by firing a gun. One second the buck is trying to scratch out a meager lunch, the next second a pile of venison chops and roasts in the snow.
They instantly fell in love and Frank took her (and the buck) back to his cabin. She never left. They call it "taking a wife".
Frank had just finished a magnificent Red Fox spread for his bed. In his log cabin in the winter this is a very practical item to have, him being a trapper. That night with Red Fox, hence part of the reason for her name, Frank discovered a whole other reason to have his Red Fox spread. He and Red Fox made love with the most incredible passion he had ever experienced. She, on the other hand, was a virgin. She was also instantly pregnant.
"Frank, if we find making love in the furs so incredible maybe others would too?"
So it was, that Frank's ... and Red Fox's business became much more than trapping and skinning. It was slow at first and they made a lot of other fur items like you see on some of the Trapper type fur sites but the demand slowly grew by word of mouth until they were making a living from mostly the fur spreads for lovers.
Frank was a born trapper. His biggest problem from early on was not enough pelts for the demand. Everybody already knew his father Willard who got too tired and old for trapping. Frank was his youngest son who actually followed in his footsteps. Fortunately Frank went everywhere with his father as a boy so Frank knew everybody too. Frank never had a problem meeting demand and all his suppliers knew from the beginning that Frank was demanding of the best. They bartered and everyone knew Frank always made good on a deal. Whatever Frank needed he got, no questions asked. Good friends do that for one another.
He and Red Fox were always going to Mountain Man events, Black Powder matches, Pow Wows, State Fairs, Archery Meets, Fur Trade Events and the Bluegrass Music Festivals all over the country. They were always meeting new folks and making new friends. They met common folks, famous C&W singers, politicians (they're everywhere) and many others that might seem most improbable. It is at these events where they do most of their bartering and trading.
2 Roger meets Frank
One of the rare days that Frank was in town getting provisions he ran into the most improbable person that Frank would get to know and call friend. A Tall guy looking like a young JFK, dressed in a suite and tie that cost more than Frank makes in a year comes up to him and ... "Could you tell me some things about this area of the country? I'll buy you lunch."
Frank looks at him like he must have either escaped from a mental ward or is really lost. The latter turned out to be true.
"OK dude, you buy I'll talk."
Roger Wiley is a young Madison Ave. advertising and marketing executive .. yes NYC. First time in his life he has been more than 50 miles from NYC, not counting the Hampton's, Martha's Vineyard and Long Island. They are part of NYC. 'Old Family' of course. Frank's family has only been here running around in the Carolina/Tennessee woods since the early 1700's.
Frank tells him a bit about family history, oral southern hillbilly style story telling. Roger is both fascinated and baffled. Mostly by the time lines. This type of story telling could give a rip about time lines. It's all about who did what, who's related to who regardless of when and how they did it .. in no particular order. That is up to the story teller making his point. Rogers mind is spinning .. and fascinated .. so he keeps urging Frank on.
Roger finally asks Frank, now that he is catching the drift of 'what' to ask .. "Frank what do you like to do?" the magic door opening question.
"I'm a trapper and I make fur things."
Roger is floored. This hick is a furrier ... of sorts? "What sort of things?"
