Family History (It goes a ways back.)
I have small wooden skunk. Just looking at it, you can tell it's fairly old. It was my great, great grandmother's toy (we think). She passed it on to my great grandmother who gave it to my father, who gave it to me. It's only about 2 inches high and about 3 inches long. The eyes are red, where the paint still shows. Most of it is stilled painted black, but the white stripes are mostly worn off.
Shortly after my father and mother got married, they moved to San Francisco, where my father met up with a stage magician. (I'll come back and post the name once I get it out of my dad again.) From him, my dad learned to be a stage magician. He dressed in oriental robes (I wish I had pictures of his obviously Italian self in green silk robes covered with dragons) and was pretty good in his time.
One of his tricks was pulling a skunk out of a box. He was very good at making it move around and look alive from a distance, but it was really just a stuffed toy. He denies that the skunk toy from his grandmother and the trick he performed are related, but I've often been left to wonder.
By the time I was born, he'd changed jobs and worked as a power-tool repairman. (Quite a change.) But he still would perform magic occasionally. I have memories from very early on about that skunk. I was so convinced that it was alive and real. I remember asking my dad where he kept it between shows, but I don't remember his answer. It must have been fairly convincing because I was about five before I realized it wasn't real. By then it was too late. I'd already convinced myself that someday I wanted a skunk too.
Some people ask me if the smell of skunks bothers me and honestly it does not. It shows the power of suggestion at an early age. When I first smelled a skunk and didn't know what it was and was told that it was the smell of a skunk. Well in my mind, what better smell could their be on earth?
The Skunk Collection
It wasn't until much later in life though, that I remembered that childhood desire. It was after I was married before I remembered it once again. I often joked with my wife and family about wanting one, but they're illegal to keep as a pets in Utah.
Shortly before I joined the Army I received a beanie baby skunk. I was working as a substitute teacher and rotated through many different classes. One day I was assigned to a second grade elementary class. I brought the skunk with me and it was a big hit—a male substitute and he carries a skunk with him. It was a double anomaly in their eyes.
While in the Army, my like of the striped prankster was fairly well known and I received a few more plushie skunks as “pets.” Most soldiers weren't aware of it though because it wasn't the sort of thing that comes up in normal “soldierly” discussion. My nickname was the “candyman.” There was no mention of skunks.
When I left the Army, I was assigned by my congregation as a nursery worker. Again the skunk was a big hit and the kids loved it. I have to wonder what the parents of one sweet little child thought when she came back from a lesson on animals with a picture of her favorite: a skunk. I had a disciple of sorts at last.
I think the thing that finally made the hobby official was the Christmas when I received from my parents a family of fairly large ceramic skunks. Nothing makes a collection more official than receiving things to add to it from one's parents. Beats underwear for Christmas at any rate.