They Lived Happily Ever After
I’ll share my grandma’s story, which is one of my favorites. As a young woman, she worked at a humble bakery in a small town in Australia. American soldiers were stationed in her town as they readied for deployment.
One day, a soldier from NYC came in when she was working and tried to order something that wasn’t on the menu. His accent was very thick and she could not understand him. She was very embarrassed, but kept trying to assist him.
After a couple minutes like this, the soldier got very impatient and started cussing and insulting my grandmother, the bakery, the town, etc. He literally didn’t know what hit him.
My grandmother, a proud woman of small stature but surprising strength, came around the counter and punched that man hard in the chest. I’m told she broke one of his ribs, even.
She definitely knocked him over. Fellow soldiers lifted the stunned soldier off the ground and back to the base where they told their CO the story. The CO panicked about ruining relations with the town and pointed to the nearest man.
He asked where he was from (Illinois), and hearing no accent, sent him back to the bakery to apologize on behalf of the army. The man did a wonderful job and made a good impression.
And he went back to that town after the war. And he married my grandma, and they lived happily ever after. They eventually moved back to the States, but she refused to ever visit NYC.