I was walking around my favorite electrical supply store. It is quite a large facility with so many things in it, such as 4 pole DIN rail contactors that are all four NC witch is extremely hard to come by n general, unless you order it online, but here we are, 6 of them on a shelf. Anyway, back to the topic.
So I was walking there, and I walked by the lamp bin where I usually go pick up some rare tubes left out by various people. Basically, a third of my "rare" tubes division came from that very box. So I walked by it and I saw a pile of shards beneath it. Apparently someone accidentally, or not, broke a tube while trying to put in in the box. And it reminded me of. That. Unfaithful. Day.
In 2017, when I first discovered that store near one edge of my city, I went there looking for ceramic E40 sockets for my homemade projects. I was searching trough my whole city for a store that had at least 1 in stock, and none did, witch appalled me back then. So when I walked in that store for the first time, I saw how many various thigs they had, such as an entirely dedicated glass cabin for just wago products, or an entire shelf above the register where they had all sorts of vosloh schwabe ballasts from fluorescent to HPS. I was exploring that store and I came across that box of lamps that I talked about just now. I remember seeing it for the first time, rammed full of various fluorescent tubes, and some of those tubes were rare Tungsram 58 watt Daylight and cool white tubes, and next to the box itself, along the information booth that it was set against, were leaning 11 soviet fluorescent tubes, all seemed NOS and upon closer inspection they were made in 1971. Of course I had to take them home with me.
Now keep in mind that the store was a huge open ceiling-gymnasium type of building. There are no walls. just a huge rectangular building with 20 meter tall arched ceilings, so if anyone, at the very back corner from the entrance drops a bag of tissues, it is enough to make an echoing noise trough the building. Now you can imagine what I did that day. I started to pick up the soviet tubes leaning unstably against the lamp box. As I am doing that, the tubes shifted and to my absolute horror, four tubes started flying into the gap between the booth and the lamp box and I could not do anything to stop it but just cover my ears. BOOM!
The four tubes shatter, all people in the 50 meter vicinity all get heart attacks and start wondering where THE GOD DAIMNED DYNAMITE WENT OFF while I stand to my horror still hearing the explosion echoing trough the store 10 second later!
Three bloody security guys run to me, four cashiers run to me, all start yelling at me what in god's name was I doing touching the tubes! They shouted at me, I was in shock I almost started to cry, but I managed to keep somewhat calm and explained to them that I collect tubes and that those were rare tubes and I wanted To take them home with me. The look on their faces still haunts me to this day. That explosion sound still haunts me to this day. THE EMBARRASEMENT IN FRONT OF ALL THOSE OTHER PEOPLE STILL HAUNTS ME TO THIS DAY!
It was easily the most embarrassing lamp related story of my life! It easily beats the one where some people caught me leaning on my belly half way into a outside rubbish container trying to fish out some lamps I saw glistening at the bottom of it. I was only 11 at that time. They laughed. I cried at home. Anyway.
Tell me your most embarrasing lamp related tsory, I would ove to know! We could have some great laughs from each others stories
