Some nice memories here. I still have some Herter's spun fur on a card and other old cards from other places. I still use an old Herter's travel vise for the flies I tie when my wife makes me go on a "vacation" to the Eastern Shore each summer.
I also still use a trout size Herter's whip finisher on the heads of my flies. If I ever lose it or break it, I am in big trouble. I never learned to tie a whip finish knot by hand, and I have no idea how to use a modern whip finisher that doesn't even touch the head of the fly.
I also still use a Herter's bodkin to place the head cement on my flies.
Dating myself here, but I also remember when Flyfisher's Paradise opened its first fly shop in Lemont. I thought it was "heaven." I still have the remains of the first genetic neck that I bought there.
Sadly, I did not save any of my big Herter's catalogs, though I did save a blue Herter's sale catalog. I remember it taking six weeks or longer for an order to Herter's to arrive.
A lot of water has gone "under the bridge" since those early days.