Our store’s founder, my late husband, was once asked to make pendants out of raccoon penis bones. You just can’t make this stuff up! Who would wear such a thing? — Jane Johnson, RM Johnson & Sons, Salem, VA
A couple years ago, woman comes in and wants us to custom make a diamond “ring” that hangs on the front of a female. She was very specific in the style. The cost was almost $1,000, which was all fine and good, until she told us it was for her 70-year-old self! Thankfully, she did not offer to show us how it fit, as once happened long ago here. — Tim Ottmann, The Gem Gallery, Reno, NV
We had a woman call to ask if we would check to see if the stone she had found was a diamond. “Come on in,” we said. So she did. She had the stone in her mouth and proceeded to spit it out into her hand. “Check this to see if it’s a diamond,” she said. We did. It wasn’t. One of our clerks knew her from childhood. She said she used to save her food in her cheeks and everyone called her “gopher cheeks.” Obviously, she’s still at it. — Terry Smith, GoldSmith Jewelers, Little Falls, MN
This article originally appeared in the April 2016 edition of INSTORE.