I thought I'd share this with you. It happened a while back while shopping for fly tying supplies at a NON fly tying supply shop.
Yes, I have been to the cosmetic counter and asked for "hard as nails". After the funny look you usually get, you ask if they have it in "natural" or clear, the shop clerk rolls her eyes and shows you what you are looking for.
Well my friends, here's the latest.
I had asked in this forum for recommendations/alternatives for mayfly wings
and you came through for me and suggested organza, which can be found at any fabric store.
So I head out to one of the major fabric stores in town to search for this wonderful material. I walk in and I am surrounded by millions of bolts of cloth, all colors and textures. I am lost, I haven't got a clue of what it is I am looking for, all I know is the name ORGANZA.
It must have been the look on my face that brought a sales clerk over to assist me. Wheew!! I said to myself when I noticed this little old lady coming my way, I am saved.
With a smile she said to me, you seem lost, may I help you? As I look around, noticing the rest of the store staring at me, all women, all smirking, I smile at the sales clerk who had come to my rescue and blurt out "I am looking for ORGASMA". Now, as soon as I mispronounced the name of the "thing" I was looking for, I knew it did not sound right. I froze, knees trembling as I noticed every single customer in the store laughing, my face is now the colour of a bead head purple woolly bugger, I move my head from side to side, perhaps hoping that by doing this I could retract the words I had blurted out. The little old lady, perplexed, somewhat embarrased looks at me and whispers, "what is it that you need"? with a shaking voice I reply.... I am looking for OR...(pause) OR...(pause again) ORG...(a longer pause now) and she comes through for me, ORGANZA she asks?. Yeah, that's it. Follow me she says and she takes me over to the ORGANZA display. Fortunately for me there were no other customers looking for ORGANZA, so I had the entire display to myself. A wheel type of set-up, with rolls of ORGANZA in every colour you could imagine. I look at the price and realize that the stuff is pretty cheap, but I don't need meters of the stuff. Before the lady leaves me there, she tells me the minimum they sell is one tenth of a meter ('bout 4 in), and that when I am ready to have the material cut, to just take it to one of the tables and one of the sales clerks would cut it for me.
So here I am surrounded by ORGANZA, there's white, grey, black, a few shades of brown, you name it, quite a selection. Now, I had just gone through one of the most embarrasing experiences of my life looking for the stuff, and really have no desire to be seen at this store for the next decade at least. So I come up with a great idea, I will buy a strip of just about every colour of the stuff, in my head I have visions of some pretty whacky caddis flies (two shades of brown ORGANZA), mayflies (white and a blueish for BWO) and many more wonderful creations. So I proceed to remove the rolls of the stuff from the wheel-type of display and stack them nearby, I had about 7 or 8 colours picked out, I grab another roll and as I turn around I hear this loud thump. To my dismay, as I had removed a substantial amount of rolls (all from the same side of the display I might add), the entire thing came crashing down, there was ORGANZA all over the place. Crap, now I did it again, here I was trying to keep a low profile after making an *** out of myself when I had asked for the stuff, and now this.
I calmly (not really) put the "fallen" rolls back on the display, spacing them so they do not fall again. Redfaced, I grabbed my "rolls" and made my way to the cutting table, I pay for my purchase and head home.
I honestly think they were relieved to see me leave, and without a doubt they must have had quite the chuckle over my shopping experience.
Alright, now let's have your fly tying supply shopping experiences.
Saltamontes