Monday, 05 November 2007
A Lesson Learned When I Was Young
By Paul Henry aka The Old Professor of Paulz Blog
It was 1944. World War II was going fast and furious and I was an aviation cadet in the U.S. Navy learning to fly airplanes. I had completed one phase of my training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was granted a leave.
Trains were always crowded and that meant I stood on my feet all night on a train from Durham, North Carolina to New York City, en route to my home in Massachusetts. I was surprised to learn it was possible to sleep while standing up.
At home my father happened to have a close friend associated with the railroad. That friendship resulted in my having a reserved seat on the Silver Meteor for my return trip. The Silver Meteor was the deluxe streamliner train, complete with a club car, which ran between New York and Miami. I understand it still does.
I boarded the train in New York and fell into a comfortable window seat that was reserved in my name. The train pulled out and I was feeling as though I certainly was something special. Here I was, 22 years old, in top physical condition, wearing the dress-blue naval officer’s uniform replete with various gold stripes and stars and I was on the Silver Meteor going towards Miami. What more could a guy ask for? I soon found out.
The aisle seat was unoccupied until the train made its first stop. A Very Attractive Blonde Lady near my own age appeared. She slid into the empty seat next to me. Now, really, what more could a guy ask for?
We chatted amiably for some time and I finally asked if she would like to go back to the club car for a drink. She thought that would be nice. As soon as we entered the club car I suspected something was wrong. The car was empty except for the bartender. He said, “I’m sorry sir, we are closed. We’re in North Carolina now and it’s a dry state. They don’t allow any liquor.”
“Could we please have a coke?"
“I’m sorry, sir, the car is closed. We can’t serve you anything until we are out of North Carolina.”
By that time I would be off the train, so that was no help.
The VABL (Very Attractive Blonde Lady) and I sat at a table facing each other. Soon a solider came through the car. He was more than a bit disheveled. His hair was rumpled, his tie was askew and he was wearing an Army uniform. His uniform had no gold stripes or gold stars like mine did. The poor guy had just a plain, wrinkled khaki uniform.
To me it was obvious he had been drinking and, I was sure, he had been overdoing it. He approached our table carrying a stack of the small paper cones that were once used on trains as cups for drinking water.
Staggering just a bit he approached me and said, “You wanna cup?”
I said, “No.” in a tone that could easily be translated to “Go away and leave us nice people alone.”
Slurring his speech more than slightly, he said, “Wadda ‘bout you lady? You wanna cup?”
She smiled and said, “Thank you very much.”
The boorish soldier walked unsteadily to the next car. I laughed and asked, “Why did you take a cup when there’s nothing to drink?”
Her reply was, “My mother taught me to take anything that’s free.” We both laughed.
Soon, Drunken Soldier staggered back into the club car. This time he was carrying the biggest bottle of bourbon I had ever seen. Everyone who had a paper cone soon had a paper cone full of bourbon. As he filled VABL’s cup I meekly said, “Uh, Sir, is it possible you might have another one of those cups you could spare? If so, could I please have one, sir?”
That wonderful man, a gallant war hero I’m sure, handed me a cup and filled it.
That little adventure taught me two very valuable lessons and I’ve not forgotten them to this day. The first one is, of course, “Take anything that’s free.”
The other is, “Always be nice to people regardless of their appearance or what their station in life may be. You never know when that person may hold the key, or cup, to your next drink.”
Addendum: I never did stay in touch with VABL because stupidly, I didn’t even get her name and address. I should have. It would have been free.
Posted by Ronni Bennett at 02:30 AM | Permalink | Email this post
Comments
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LOL...my mom taught me to be wary of people giving away stuff - you never know what the actual cost might be.
Posted by: kenju | Monday, 05 November 2007 at 04:39 AM
Humorous lesson in good manners. I enjoyed your story.
Posted by: Darlene | Monday, 05 November 2007 at 07:16 AM
My mother always taught that there would eventually be a price to pay for anything free. That thought probably kept me from many pleasures like you describe.
Thank you
Posted by: Claudean | Monday, 05 November 2007 at 10:15 AM
Wondrful story and good advice, too! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Suzz | Monday, 05 November 2007 at 04:15 PM
After this story was posted (Thank you Ronni) I had an afterthought.
There were reasons I didn’t get further involved with this Very Attractive Blond Lady. At that time I was returning from a leave where I had proposed to my girlfriend and, in my mind then, gentlemen didn’t do things like that. Girlfriend and I were married after the war and also divorced after the same war.
I thought, how OHenryesque it would be if some Very Attractive Grey Lady, now in her eighties, were to read this and recognize that I was that interesting Cadet she met on the Silver Meteor. The ironic part is that she wouldn’t know that my e-mail address is [email protected] so another chance would be wasted.
Oh well.
Posted by: Old Professor | Thursday, 08 November 2007 at 09:37 AM