Woman of the Lake - Fishing Opener

Years ago I applied for a job at a large ad agency in Minneapolis. I didn’t have any experience but I had a small portfolio and I managed, somehow to arrange for an interview. The interview went way better than I could have imagined and the woman who interviewed me loved everything I showed her. I started thinking, “Fawkinnae I should show her my Fawkinnae Sportsman’s Club art.” She looked at it and immediately a big grin crossed her face followed by a burst of laughter. She thought for a minute and then asked if I would mind if she made a copy of it because she wanted to show her husband. I said sure.

Fast forward several year... my brother-in-law Tim is out working in his yard and he walks over to say hello to his neighbor. Tim is wearing a Faw-kinn-ae sweatshirt I had given him. All of the sudden his neighbor says, “Hey—where did you get that?!”

Tim tells his neighbor, “My brother-in-law makes them.”

Turns out the neighbor is a copywriter for the ad agency I had interviewed at several years before. My Fawkinnae art at been passed thoughout the agency after my interview and all the copywriters in the agency had been meeting for beers after work as—The Faw-kinn-ae Sportsman’s Club! This had been going on for years.

The neighbor says, “How do I get one of those?”.

Tim gave him my contact information. The neighbor ended up ordering sweatshirts for his entire opening day fishing party. That chance encounter still makes me smile. Faw-kinn-ae!

Funny thing, after the fishing opener I talked with the neighbor and asked how the sweatshirts had worked out. Of course everyone loved them. He then shared this, his 90 year old grandmother commented on how nice the sweatshirts were and asked what it said. His reply,

Fäw-kinn-ae those copywriters think fast!