Rothenburg ob der Tauber

It was a nice little German drinking establishment. The beer was good, I talked to a lady that had actually heard JFK's speech near the Berlin Wall, had a German English teacher wanting to practice his English with a real American, the accordion player played for us several times the only American tune he knew - Deep in the Heart of Texas - and we all sang with gusto, oh yes, I discovered that Germans had at least two uses for shoes.

Our little contingent of National Guard troops were allowed to go to the walled city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which means on the river Tauber, one weekend while participating in a three week exercise with the regular army.  It was my first time outside the United States and I was enjoying every minute of my great adventure. 

My NG compatriots and I were having a grand time in the little bar, but I decided that I wanted to walk around town a little. I left my buddies and just roamed around Rothenburg. It was dark and I couldn't see much but it was a crisp Bavarian night and I was so very impressed just to be there.  It dawned on me that I had been the first McAnally to cross the Atlantic going east.

I eventually went back to where my friends were and my buddy Jerry came up to me and said, "You can't believe what just happened. A bunch of Germans poured beer in one of their shoes, started singing a beer drinking song and at the end of the song they tried to slam back their beer faster than the others at the table."

 "Disgusting!" I said.

An hour or beer or so later Jerry came up to me again and said they were singing that song again. I walked up to the table where the Germans were, I slapped my shoe on the table, they greeted me warmly, poured beer in my shoe and at the appropriate time in the song, we all drank the beer as fast as we could. I slammed my shoe on the table at about the same time this one German did but there was a discrepancy on who finished first.  We got into a friendly argument so it was decided that a rematch was in order.

He poured beer in my shoe than his, we counted to three, he picked up both shoes, handed me his and started drinking out of mine. He won of course because he had bigger feet. I think he must have worn ten and half, at least that's what it tasted like.