There's an old joke that goes "how can you tell when a truck driver is telling a lie? His lips are moving."
I was drinking a couple of beers in a bar next to the truckstop in Effingham, IL tonight and this driver was talking about all of the different place he was at when he was in the service. I'll admit his stories were quite interesting and it sounded like he had visited a lot of places for no longer than he had said he had served.
Funny though how he didn't understand some simple phrases in the languages spoken in the places he claimed to have spent some time. Every place I spent any time when I was in the service I managed to learn at least a little of the language. I learned some Italian, Greek, Arabic, Farsi, and Spanish while I was serving simply because I served in areas where those languages were spoken. I am not fluent in any of them, but I understand enough of them to get by.
This guy while claiming to have served in a number of different countries didn't understand even the most simple of phrases in the common languages of those places.
Why do people feel the need to claim having done things that they obviously haven't done? So what if you were a cook at some base in Wyoming? You still served. There is no shame in that. Why not be proud of what you did? Why the need to make up stuff?
I'll never understand people.
I had a pretty decent evening. I had a few beers served by a nice looking bartender, had some interesting conversations with my fellow intoxicants, and managed to make it back to my truck without the need to hit anyone for any reason. That makes for a good night in my book. There was the one guy who was bumming smokes, but the fact that I was smoking a pipe put him off of me. I still told him to either go buy a a pack or walk back to his truck to get his own. He didn't like me much.
Life can be pretty damn weird at times But that's why I love it.