As time goes by, this isn't uproariously funny, but I did drive away scratching my head.
To set the stage for this little tale, I have a red truck. That's purely coincidental. It was the truck they had on the lot that fit my wants the day I bought it, but it fits the narrative. I also have an Alabama cover on my hitch receiver and a 3" Alabama "A" magnet on my tailgate. I also still have Idaho tags because they keep sending me renewal notices at just the right time to get forwarded to my newest address and they will send me tags where ever I am. I just line out the old address, write in the new one, and enclose a check. Since they are ridiculously cheap compared to the Eastern States, I keep buying them.
As I was lined up to turn left into Ft. Lee Sunday, a green Toyota truck stopped on my left, a good car length from the car in front of him. I looked over, and the driver, an older guy wearing an Alabama cap, was giving the Pentagon salute (arms out, shoulders shrugged, palms up) and mouthing something like "whats up". I thought he'd seen my Alabama stuff and this was another of those Roll Tide moments, so I waved and smiled..... but he kept doing it, and he had his passenger window down, so I rolled my window down too.
He said, "Why don't you have a truck load of taters?" Still thinking Alabama (and we're yelling through traffic noise), I thought I heard him say, "Why don't you have a truck load of gators?" That made no sense to me and I couldn't think of a way to respond. I thought that was a pretty odd question, especially since Alabama didn't even play Florida this year. I said, "what?" He said, "Idaho.....taters!"
Now, I still didn't quite know how to respond, so I said, "I haven't been in Idaho in over 6 years"........ "but when I was there I saw more sugar beets than taters."
He said, "When are you going back?". Me: (still thinking Alabama at this point) "To Idaho?". Him: "yeah". Me: "I don't know if I will, I'm from Alabama." (please get it, guy, please get it)
He yelled over, just as the light turned green, "where". I said "Gadsden" and drove ahead and pulled away from him. He caught me momentarily as we approached the gate and yelled over, "I was born and raised in Andalusia." and then traffic caught him and I moved on and never saw him again.
As I drove away from the gate, I noticed my Alabama cap, just like his, laying on my passenger seat. If only I'd thought about it.....
When you go where the Army sends you, and you carry the artifacts of everywhere else you've been, this kind of thing isn't that uncommon.
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