Lake Louise and the Aussies
When we came downstairs for dinner that night, we saw a lovely, little trout pond in the middle of the lobby. A man sat on the rim apparently tickling the undersides of the trout. When he saw us watching him, he asked if we wanted to bet he could catch one. We agreed on a drink for whoever won.
Shortly after that, a fish swam across his hand. He seemed to rub its belly with his middle three fingers. To our amazement, the fish lay calmly in the man’s hand. The fellow lifted the relaxed, unmoving trout out of the water.
We were on our honeymoon at the Chateau Lake Louise in Canada. The man, an Australian, told us he had hypnotized ‘the little mate. ‘ He lowered the quietly resting fish back into the water, and it swam away unharmed.
We came to know this person and his traveling companion, (though their names now escape me.) We paid with drinks all around and ate dinner with them for several nights. They told us they had just come from London where they had been presented to the Queen, and were traveling across Canada selling diamonds when they needed cash.
We didn’t believe a word of it, but we countered with extolling the grandeur of the Kansas City Steak. Though we exchanged addresses, we never expected to hear from them again. To our surprise, they kept in touch with cards each Christmas.
Several years passed. When my mother and father planned a trip to Sidney, I suggested they look up our two ‘mates,’ and wrote the men telling them where and when my parents would arrive.
This is what my mother told me. She and Dad were met by a uniformed chauffeur driving a Roils Royce. They were taken to a lovely estate overlooking the ocean, with manicured grounds stretching from the mansion to the sea. Their host, the fish tickler, greeted them. He and his wife treated my parents royally with drinks, hors d’oeuvres and dinner. Then they drove my parents on a guided scenic tour of Sidney before taking them back to their hotel.
A year went by. The lord of the manor, (I still can’t remember his name) came to Kansas City on business. He only had time for dinner he said, but he definitely wanted to try one of those Kansas City steaks. We took him to the best steak house (back then) in town, the Golden Ox. He said he’d come to visit and perhaps buy Manor Bakery, one of the largest bakeries in the United States.
Turned out what they’d told us was all true. Our Lake Louise ‘mates’ could not only hypnotize fish. They had been presented to the Queen, and they did sell diamonds for cash across Canada. Little did we know they owned the largest bakery in all of Australia.
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