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My father was a career Air Force NCO. I ,like many of my friends, the first to go to college. The summer before entering school my job was loading rail box cars to the top with 50 lb sacks of potatoes. All the crew were Hispanic except me. The swing boss a guy with badly healed knife scars and self drawn tattoos. He never spoke. He didn’t need to. I worked stupidly hard. I felt a need to impress him and the crew. Also I was a bit afraid of him. Always left in my car , the cut up carrot sticks my mother always furnished.

When I went to college my mates joked me into the college physique contest. Due to loading rail cars I won second place, thus achieving dates with otherwise unobtainable upper class college girls.

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"Always left in my car , the cut up carrot sticks my mother always furnished." You, Sir, have won my internet today. Thank you.

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Jun 2, 2022·edited Jun 2, 2022Liked by Christopher Gage

The greatest crime in the history of humanity occurred and you sots make jokes about how much fun it is to be inebriates.

I want the Irish on my side if this is what the Queen can bring.

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Jun 2, 2022·edited Jun 2, 2022Author

The greatest crime... when they banned smoking in pubs?

Send her victorious... happy and glorious...

Cheers, Cracker.

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Jun 2, 2022Liked by Christopher Gage

Apologies are offered. Five too many myself. Howling at the moon last evening.

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Good lad!

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Nicely done. "One day, the philosophy student signed his own social death sentence. He brought with him a container of sushi, and a crisp copy of The Guardian. This was the social equivalent of urinating in the kettle." - made me laugh out loud (lol)

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I still cringe when I think about it...

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May 28, 2022Liked by Christopher Gage

I was on a train out of a London in early November 2004 a day or two after Bush the Younger was re-elected. I was quietly reading the Guardian when a woman across from me said “can you believe those stupid Americans re-elected that idiot?” I responded in my American accent “I can”. The look of shock on her face was precious. She asked me why I was reading the Guardian if I voted for Bush. I responded “Schadenfreude”. She changed seats.

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Wonderful anecdote.

The day of Brexit, I was at Glastonbury music festival with 200,000 others. Seriously, I didn't meet another Brexiteer. The clever ones were crying as the results came in. Just beautiful.

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