This past Wednesday I got to spend an hour or so at the Ebensburg VFW with George "Spider" Dow, Alexis' grandfather, and Neal Dow, her dad (my father-in-law).
Spider told me a story (at Neal's prompting) about how the president of Switzerland once bought him a drink. He'd been on leave in Switzerland towards the end of WWII and went out for a nice meal one night. He happened to walk in to a restaurant where the president was hosting a large-scale dinner party. He was going to leave but they told him to stay because American GIs were welcome. He ordered a glass of wine ("just seemed a little too nice for beer") and when he pulled out money to pay for it the server informed him that the drink was covered by "that gentleman over there." He looked over to the head of the large table and the man who waved at him was the president of Switzerland.
"What'd you do then, Dad?" Neal asked, grinning.
"I stood up and gave him one of these," Spider said, and he stood and shot off a crisp, proud salute.
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1 comment:
A great post for National Day of Listening! Save this one for the wee one...
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