Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Memorial at Omaha Beach

While at Omaha beach a tour bus rolled in and a couple of ladies, I took to be sisters, were shepherding this older gentleman along. It turned out that he was a Veteran of the invasion and they were bringing him back to France for what would probably be his last hurrah.

Anyway while he was standing there with a far away pensive look, (could have been some Alzheimer’s mixed in) this French lady with her son walked up. He had his American Legion hat on and she asked in halting English if she could have her son’s picture taken with the old American Veteran. He graciously agreed, put his arm around the boy and as she took the snapshot he said, “Vous ete mon cher ami.” The boy beamed smiling up at him and I got the sense that it was one of the few French phrases the old duffer knew and he had probably used it in the distant past trying to strike up a conversation with the French girls. In the context he said it however, it came across perfectly and I was touched by the sentiment in his words.

For those of you who have not spent a lot of time around soldiers be advised that the first words they always want to learn are phrases that will express their interests to a young woman.

I’m reminded of when I was in Germany and a GI asked an older German employee, what he should say to make a good impression on a fraulien.

The German, who was a traffic manager responsible for rail movements, replied. “Just smile and say the word “Eisenbahn.”

“What does it mean?” asked he soldier.

“It means in Deutch that a girl is very beautiful,” he replied with a deadpan expression.

For the next couple weeks there was a story going around in the unit… about a GI, approaching young German girls, with the line, “Eisenbahn.” (It means Railroad.)