Monday, March 29, 2010

Adventures in "Smalltown" Wal-Mart.

Saturday we decided we wanted to go fishing and all we needed was to get the Canadian boyfriend a license. I should have known better than to go to a smalltown Wal-Mart. BUT..it was on the way to the lake and right beside McD's for a quick Happy Meal.

So in Wal-Mart and three employees after the initial flagdown, I am tossing suggestions out there to help this lady (bless her heart), who is apparently in a higher position than the first two, try to get this license issued. Oh my, the questions that popped out of her mouth, we couldn't help but giggle and snicker. One of her first confused inquiries was, "What's Alberta?" Ok, lol, no big deal. I told her it was a province of Canada. Then she mentioned something about using "CA" as an abbreviation for Canada to use in the state field. I was holding back a huge smile and I told her that it might not work that way.
Then came the big giggle....

Still staring at the license machine, and kind of agitated at this point, she says, "Is Canada a part of the United States?" .....

I looked at the boyfriend and he probably saw the same hysterical yet silent laughing fit he saw in me. I couldn't believe she just asked us that LOL. The other employee standing beside her giggled too and said, "Well, it's attached. On the same continent, but uh, no, it's not."
I told her that the license was no big deal and we could go get it somewhere else, but she begged us to stay because she was determined to figure it out. She made a phone call and whoever it was walked her through it.

I think I let her finish it just for amusement because I SHOULD have went somewhere else. I later found out the boyfriend does qualify for a resident license because he's enrolled full time in college. For someone trained at issuing such licenses, a flag should have went up when I mentioned that. But no. We ended up paying $40 for a non-resident fishing license for a full-year. Next time I'll take my friend's advice: go to Gander Mountain or somewhere a bit more knowledgable.

Needless to say, we got to go fishing anyway and had a blast. We also have a funny story to tell! And the boyfriend will have to make it worth $40 and catch us a lot of dinner. He's off to a good start, tho, considering he caught the only fish for that day.

6 comments:

Mercy's Maid said...

I am so glad you posted this. I knew you would come back with a good story. And yes, now he should be very motivated to go fishing to get his money's worth.

It reminds me of the time I went to the little post office (in a tobacco store!) and the lady thought the UK was a state.

http://mercysnumber1fan.blogspot.com/2006/12/postal-hint.html

Lainy said...

Wow, lol. That's just as bad as mine. Ok so let's start a list:

1.) Don't go to "Smalltown" Wal-Mart and expect them to know where Canada is located.
2.) Don't go to a tobacco store/post office and expect them to know where the UK is located.

I think your story is more sad than mine LOL.

Mercy's Maid said...

Another time I went to the same tobacco store/post office to ship something to GA and the lady asked if that was international. I said, "uh no. It's a state." She asked if it was far from here. :)

Lainy said...

wow >_< lol

Queen Mel said...

LOL no wonder we Canadians laugh and make the jokes that the US doesn't know about us.

The sad part is I don't know much about me (Canada) either, in school it was all about USA....I can list off a lot of Presidents but Prime Ministers....not so much.

I do know my provinces though :o)

Lainy said...

Yeah in US we don't study much about Canada, but my gosh, my Canadian boyfriend knows more about the US than I do! x.x lol