A WW II American soldier had been on the front lines in Europe for
three months, when he was finally given a week of R&R.｡｡He caught a
supply boat to a supply base in the south of England, then caught
a train to London. The train was extremely crowded and he could
not find a seat. He was dead on his feet and walked the length of
the train looking for any place to sit down.
Finally he found a compartment with seats facing each other; there
was room for two people on each seat. On one side sat only a
proper looking, older British lady, with a small dog sitting in
the empty seat beside her.
"Could I please sit in that seat," he asked. The lady was
insulted; "You Americans are so rude," she said, "can't you see my
dog is sitting there?"
He walked through the train more and still could not find a seat.
He found himself back at the same place. "Lady, I love dogs, I
have a couple at home. So I would be glad to hold your if I can
sit down."
The lady replied, "You Americans are not only rude you are
arrogant!" she said. He leaned against the wall for a time, but
was so tired he finally said, "Lady, I've been on the front lines
in Europe for three months with not a decent rest for all that
time. Could I please sit there and hold your dog?"
She replied, "You Americans are not only rude and arrogant, you
are also obnoxious." With that comment, the soldier calmly stepped
in, picked up the dog, threw it out the window, and sat down. The
lady was speechless.
An older, neatly dressed Englishman sitting across on the other
seat spoke up. "Young man, I do not know if all you Americans fit
the lady's discription of you or not. But, I do know that you
Americans do a lot of things wrong. You drive on the wrong side of
the road, you hold your forks with the wrong hand, and now you
have thrown the wrong bitch out of the window."
