Rather than hijack the chow mein thread, I'll post this story here. As I mentioned, I had a friend working as a teacher at an American army base in Grafenwöhr, Germany. He was one of my climbing and skiing buddies here in Salt Lake. As such, he had a pair of what we called "glacier goggles" which were severe duty sunglasses. Very dark lenses, leather bits to seal the gap between the glasses and the face, and a string around the neck.
One sunny afternoon he was out with the kids on the playground, so he wore the goggles. One of the boys asked him about the funny glasses. Jim told them a little story about how they were top secret X Ray glasses. "To prove it, I can see though your pants and tell you the color of your underwear." The kid of course doesn't believe him. So he stares at the kid, makes a few "adjustments" to the leather side shields and tells the kid "White." The boy's face goes into total surprise look, and he runs off.
Now that is funny in itself. But wait, there's more!
This particular base is not far from the Czech border, a communist country at the time. And the time was back in the cold war days. Things could get tense there at a moment's notice.
So a few days later Jim is sitting down and having dinner. There is a knock on the door. He opens it and is faced with two rather stern and serious looking soldiers from the Army's in house version of the CIA. They demand to see the X ray glasses. Jim didn't know what they were talking about for a few moments, then he remembered. He laughed and went to get them.
Turns out the kid with the white underwear was the son of one of the top security officers on base. He took his son's report of the "top secret Xray glasses" quite seriously. Jim was amused.
One sunny afternoon he was out with the kids on the playground, so he wore the goggles. One of the boys asked him about the funny glasses. Jim told them a little story about how they were top secret X Ray glasses. "To prove it, I can see though your pants and tell you the color of your underwear." The kid of course doesn't believe him. So he stares at the kid, makes a few "adjustments" to the leather side shields and tells the kid "White." The boy's face goes into total surprise look, and he runs off.
Now that is funny in itself. But wait, there's more!
This particular base is not far from the Czech border, a communist country at the time. And the time was back in the cold war days. Things could get tense there at a moment's notice.
So a few days later Jim is sitting down and having dinner. There is a knock on the door. He opens it and is faced with two rather stern and serious looking soldiers from the Army's in house version of the CIA. They demand to see the X ray glasses. Jim didn't know what they were talking about for a few moments, then he remembered. He laughed and went to get them.
Turns out the kid with the white underwear was the son of one of the top security officers on base. He took his son's report of the "top secret Xray glasses" quite seriously. Jim was amused.