JD Parts guy for 17 years, and before mobile phones. A few stories:

Wife came in, said, "I need a belt for the combine." I said, "Sure, (I knew her, and what machine they had) which belt?" "I don't know..." "I said, "Okay, which side of the combine is it on?" (I could send her home with two or three good guesses and they could return what they didn't need). She thought a moment, brightened, and said, "The side next to the crib!"

I collected relatable 'funnies'. One of my favorites was a farmer at the counter saying, "Well, of course I want it today. If I wanted it tomorrow, I'd order it tomorrow!"

We had one old boy, moved slower than molasses- think The Oldest Man character from Carol Burnett. They didn't trust him running machinery but somehow they thought it was okay for him to drive to town for parts***. If we happened to see him pull up, one of us would trot out and ask him what he needed. If it wasn't anything too complicated, we might meet him with the parts as he got to the door.

There was another guy, part of a family that lived back up in the hills and I think he only took a bath if the month had an 'R' in it- and then only once. Really nice guy and he didn't come in very often, which was a good thing because you literally couldn't stand the normal distance away from him. Lots of livestock in our area so manure smell was tolerable, but his B.O. was like a living thing. One day, I was working at my desk and suddenly noticed it got kinda quiet. The other two counter people were nowhere to be seen. Looked toward the counter and yep, there he was...

After you've been at it a while, you can get away with some stuff. If someone I knew well said, "I need a belt," I'd say, "I could use one too. It's a little early in the day for me, but that's okay. Where shall we go?" Another time, a guy went off on some political rant and just kept going. Now, he was known for doing this, and most of the guys he had buttonholed were relatives, so they couldn't get away without some help. I went in the back and got one of those plastic milk crates we used as a step stool, brought it out, and set it down next to him. "What's that for?" he asked. I said, "Well, I don't have a soap box..."

One place I worked was a father and two sons. Dad was getting on in years, so the sons mostly ran the place. Story goes that one of his long-time customers was dickering with him over a new tractor. They both fell asleep. Dealer woke up first and when the customer came to, he (customer) said, "Now, where were we?" "You just agreed to buy that tractor!" "Oh, well okay then. Hand over the papers..."