Originally Posted by Double Down
OK, here we go. So there is a chocolate manufacturer based out of Vegas called Ethel M. It's the Mars corporation, but their box of chocolates version, like See's or Godiva. So you can go to the factory in Vegas and get a tour, which is free and unguided and is essentially a 100 foot long corridor and on your left through glass windows is the factory, and you can walk along and watch the chocolate get made.
So at the end of the hallway, you enter a huge gift shop with all their wares, and if you've gone through the "tour" you can get one free sample of chocolate, one of whatever you want. There was no hand stamping or tickets for it or anything like that. The employees just see you emerge from the hallway and you can walk up to any of the counters and ask for a free sample.
So when I was a kid (maybe from ages 8-11) my dad and I would go once or twice a year, and the fun would begin. We would go through 5, 6, up to maybe a dozen times through the corridor to the end to get a free chocolate each time. By the end, it was a matter of sprinting through the "tour", racing each other, to see who could get to the end and get the next free chocolate. We made a game out of it. The gift shop was pretty big, with probably 4 or 5 different counters, so we would split up and try to approach different cashiers so as not to double up.
Here's where it got really fun. By round 4 or 5, the employees would recognize us and get wise to what we were doing, so at some point when asking for a chocolate, an employee would say to us, "I'm sorry sir, it's only one free sample per person per day." My dad would try to argue and swear that he had just shown up for the first time.
Now here's where it goes of the mother effing deep end. And I swear to god this is true. My dad and I after getting "caught" would go to the parking lot and get "in character". It started innocently enough with me wearing his glasses and putting on a more scholarly demeanor, and him wearing my baseball hat backwards and acting "younger" and then going back in. It eventually led to us bringing disguises, things like different pairs of sunglasses, manners of walking (limps FTW), different accents, bringing different shirts to change into, different pants, my dad's doctor jacket (yes my dad is a doctor!), etc. Pretty much everything short of professional face putty or fake facial hair and wigs.
Of course, we'd get caught after a few times of this. I have a very vivid memory of a lady saying to my dad, dressed like his young hip dude character, "Sir, I already told you, there's only one free sample per person per day," and my dad sort of doing a two wild and crazy guy shimmy dance saying, "What are you talking about, lady? Never seen you before. Come on, don't be such a square."
How's that for starters?