大象传媒

My father, Joe Fisher, served with US Army near Lichfield (Whittington Barracks), part of his duty was to train Home Guard and other British units equipped with US M-1 rifle As an enlisted man he was not supposed to "fraternize' with officers, US or British.

When going to the rifle range with British troops he would always take extra bandoleers of ammo so the British officers could shoot as well. One day to reflect their gratitude they invited my father, a US enlisted man, to the British officers mess.

As luck would have it the day this occurred, a friend of his from Eastern Kentucky (a sort of hillbilly like area) arrived at Whittington Barracks to visit his friend, Joe.

Al Bryant (who was a security guard on President Harry Truman's train for part of the 'whistle stop' tour in the 1948 Election) arrives at Whittington Barracks to track down his friend, Joe. Told that Joe was at the British Officers Mess, Al barges in and is finally invited to the table where my father is sitting with British officers.

One of the British officers apologetically says he would offer Al some of the Imperial pint of gin on the table but concedes "old chap, we are out of tonic"
Al from Eastern Kentucky says "you got a glass ain't you?" The pours a large glass of straight gin and swills it down......

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.