When I first came here in 99/00 I lurked mostly, as I was teaching myself how use a computer. There was a thread about a strain Jack Flash x Super Skunk, by Earliquine and the penguin, from Australia.
As a total newb at the time, I became entranced with getting my grubs on it. The thread was a shit show, as some folks had some herm’s pop up, and OverGrow was fight Club back then, so LOTs of shit slinging.
When I contacted them, I got no reply back.
Around the same time, I found KarmaGenitics, a defunct site, based out of Australia. As I lurked and read, I found Erl and the penguin over there! So I started posting in their thread, and over time, asked the penguin if I could secure some jack flash x super skunk beans, and promised NOT bitch about any herms. We danced a while, got to know each other a bit, until one day, I got a message stating I could secure some with a UNICEF donation!! WTF? I had collected for UNICEF as a wee kid in grade school, when they gave you these wee boxes that held change for donations and turned back in to the school on a given date.
I go to UNICEF, make a donation of $50.00, take a snap of the receipt, send it to the penguin. He asked me for an a safe address. about 3-4 weeks later, I get this padded envelope, inside is 5 packets of seeds, with a small printed out business card size label, Seeds From The Igloo! 10- Ozgum,10- Ozghani, 10 JFxSS, and 10- of another strain, I can not recall anymore.
So I contact the penguin, thanking him, for a super generous amount of beans, I get no reply back. A week, then a month, so I went to UNICEF, made another donation, and snapped a pic, and sent it to the penguin as a good will gesture and a big thank you for his generosity. No reply.
Right before Karma Genitics started to go sideways due to a change in Australian laws, Heather Bud, who was running it, said it could go dark. I made a final stab at contacting the penguin, and got a reply back from someone telling me they are the penguins son, and regretted to inform me he had passed away.
So here I am, 40+ year old dude that has been on construction sites since I was 12 years old, teary eyed over a handle I never met, never got to thank, and never knew how much I loved each of his creations. He never knew, all the folks in my wee part of the world, half a planet away, of all the folks that became in love with something from Australia, something so unique that some still to this day, ask about the strains from down under, and how they were impacted by them.
19 Likes