Sleeps Along The Way

“You are from a different world…”, words that caught me by surprise when I inquired about purchasing a Nikon lens for my 35 mm camera from the owner of  Atlantic Photo in Atlantic Beach, NC.

The hot ticket tourist town that would have you believe it celebrates the pagan rites of spring 24 hours a day.

The beginning of our conversation had me asking if he had a 50mm lens that would fit my Nikon FG camera.

“Yes, but I can’t sell it to you, it’s the only one I have.”

 Whoa… slowly now… please repeat that.

“Yes, I have a used 50mm Nikon lens, it’s the only one I have and I cannot sell it to you … because if I do I’ll have to charge you what a replacement will cost plus shipping … and then I would order a new one for the store ... but you’d then be getting a used one at the new price… so, you see, I can’t sell it to you.”

It was de-ja-vu… when Susan and I were first setting up our love niche in the late 70’s, I spotted a fantastic cookie jar (would hold 4 large packages of Oreos) at Sears in Carlsbad, CA

The sales lady would not sell me the turtle shaped vault for my passion sweets.

“I’m sorry SIR!… it is the last one we have and I cannot remove it from the display shelf…”

“But…”, I started to plead, to no avail.

“SIR, if I remove this last one from the display shelf our customers would not be able to see what we have available. This is not a catalog item and it is necessary for us to retain it.”

”Can you order one for me, but sell me the display one and when the one I ordered arrives you can put it on the shelf (my OREOS were kicking my brain cells into high gear).”

“SIR, I cannot sell you our last one.” 

Meanwhile… back at Atlantic Beach Photo…

“I don’t have the traffic at this camera store that would support the active buying and selling of equipment like shops in California… you are from a different world… you people have it all… you can get anything… we’re a little different here.”   

To this day – HONEST FOLKS – each and every time I dunk an Oreo, that comes out of a bag, I besmirch the name of that sales lady… and who knows, I just may turn my Nikon into a VOODOO image of a certain individual… and every time I cock the shutter I’ll tighten his shorts.

John & Susan

Yep ... soon ... more on the way