u/RecordOfTheEnd

Stumbled on this sub, and thought it hilarious. Reminded me of my own experience

My mom was a custom dress maker. From the age of 12 till I moved out at 19, I was the designated assistant. I'm a guy, and while I'm bi, I usually come off as straight. By the time I was in high school, I was patterning making my own dresses for her shop. During the busy prom season I was in charge of shopping. I needed to get a bunch of notions we were short on and get some bolts of fabric we knew were going to be popular.

So I was walking around with a cart full of fabric bolts and a bunch of notions. Some lady walks to me and asks if I can help. She was trying to sew a dress for her little daughter and wasn't very experienced and wanted so help getting what she would need. So I just turn and say, sure. I have a look at the pattern and realize it's probably too advanced for her. So I let her know and we go searching through patterns until we find one that would be on her skill level. We then go finding the right fabric. And the we find the correct notions. I grab my cart and we walk up to the cutting table. I needed a few smaller pieces of fabric cut. I then go, you can ask this lady to cut and how much. She thanks me and heads up to the cashier.

I then get my fabric cut and head to go the line, right behind the woman. She turns and asks why I'm in line. I let her know, oh I'm picking up things for my mother's dress shop and a few pieces for some projects I'm working on personally for a close friend. She then turns red and starts apologizing. She assumed the only reason a guy would be in the fabric store was because they worked there, and with all the bolts of fabric, assumed I was putting them back on the shelf.

I hope her daughter's dress turned out wonderfully and the woman had many more fun projects

This episode reminded me about the story a friend of my family once told me. He was a well driller for water wells. He was pretty successful.

Early on in his career, he was training to identify potential water locations. His mentor was huge into using the rods as he called them. He would wander around a property, chasing the rods. He would describe the water under the ground, and then come to the exact spot to drill. He always found water.

Well, he moved on to start working for an actual engineering firm. His job was to help identify the needed equipment and materials for a well site. The best locations on a property would be identified by a hydrologists and he would go visit the location and make his recommendation of which sites would be best. Invariably he would drill and find water.

He got to know the hydrologists and was talking to one. He mentioned how the reports almost always ended up in finding water that was good to drink. He talked about his mentor and how he found water with his rods.

The hydrologist put it this way. Finding water is easy, it doesn't matter where you drill, you'll eventually find water if you drill deep enough. The rods don't do anything really. The key is to know the underlying geology of the area to tell you what kind of water is in what layer do you can get to sweet water with the least amount of drilling. If they do work, it's because experience tells you what to look for based on the geology you see on the surface.

Anyway, I laugh now ever time I see someone use rods. I literally saw someone making utility lines using rods. He then went over with the sensors and moved them slightly. Experience told him the general location. It took actual scientific equipment to locate them.