On Mon, 04 Oct 2004 19:35:40 GMT, "Barry"
wrote:

I spent over fifty years fly fishing with my dad before he died about three
months ago. Both of us collected a lot of fly fishing gear over that period
of time. When I inherited my dad's equipment, I found my den looking like a
small tackle shop.

Snipped only for the sake of space

Enough nostalgia. What to do with so much equipment is where I started.
Maybe a fly fishing club or ??

Barry

I have some idea of what you are going through, both with your loss and
with the collection. Putting aside from my own collector's desire to
know what you have, might I suggest a coupla-three things:

1. Plan now, but don't dispose now, for two reasons: I have friends
that were never going to have kids, get married again, etc., and are now
happily on marriage 2 or 3 with a gaggle of great kids, and secondly,
you might find _your_ perfect way to dispose of your legacy tomorrow,
next week, or next year.

2. Figure out what you really wish for the gear. While selling it off
and donating the proceeds from the sale to charity might be the way to
go, why not consider using the proceeds to fund whatever "passion" your
daughter might have. While the passion for fishing might not be passed
on, she can at least know that her father's and grandfather's "passion"
helped contribute to hers - after all, at least IMO, it really isn't the
activity in which one finds their joy, but the joy found itself.

3. If you really must know that the gear be cared for but used and that
the proceeds from any potential sale are, for whatever reason, not
important, maybe donate it to something like the Catskills museum,
www.cffcm.org, or similar with the provision it be not merely displayed,
but used. Depending the gear, they might even be able to fundraise with
it (I have no idea what the gear is, whether the Catskills museum or
similar would be interested, etc. - it's just a suggestion/possibility).

Just some thoughts, and hope they help,
R