Can you name a country?

Who remembers potato pistols? :potato:

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So posh, we called them spud guns.

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I am reluctant to be too mocking of American gaffs about the rest if the world. I know I couldnā€™t correctly place all the states in the USA or Canada and Iā€™m not sure I wouldnā€™t mix up some of the countries in South America too. Iā€™m pretty certain Iā€™m not the only European with such holes in my knowledge.

Maxime itā€™s one of my tinder boxes when people crack jokes (or are just plain rude) about France and cowardice. After all Dunkirk was dependant on the bravery of the french army to hold the Germans at bay. When I hear British or Americans make cheap cracks (and Iā€™ve heard both) it makes my blood boil.

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Iam sorry Peter I am struggling to translate the meaning of your last sentence. Arf my english skills are not good enough

No, but it was sch a stupid remark that I am not surprised that you remember it.

Canā€™t disagree with that Jane. Perhaps rather typical of a boy in early adolescence whose intellectual, emotional and social faculties were being developed in an all-boys Grammar School in the late 1940s.

Cruelty and insensitivity were part of the ethos, many of the all-male masters were war-damaged ex-infantry officers recently back from the front, and one was expected to dish it out as well as suck it up.

I think it was my motherā€™s dismay that seared my memory and gave me pause for thought about the dubious wisdom of being a smart-arse.