Floor buffer wanted

I was drafted to the U.S. Army in 1959, only two years after I emigrated from Germany. My English was really bad at best.
My first station was in Fort Dix, N.J. After I spent one week peeling potatoes and everybody left the barracks, I didn't know or understand that they all had been flown to Fort Knox, Ky., so they had to fly me alone to Fort Knox.
After I got there, the platoon sergeant asked me if I could clean and buff floors. I said yes, and every day when everybody left, I cleaned the barracks. It really looked nice.
After about six weeks the sergeant asked me who I was, so I told him. He asked me if I went to any training. I said no — since I was busy buffing floors.
Needless to say, he called me everything in the book, and he had to give me a crash course in everything in one day by himself.

« Previous story
Next story »