Norway late 1980's.one of the manifestations of goodwill with the Norwegians was that a party of Marines would attend divine service in a small,rural Norwegian church.The Marines faced one obvious difficulty.Their knowledge of the language,where it existed at all,the associated problem of when to stand up,kneel down,or sit was fairly easy to deal with, they would follow the well established proceedure of those put to use by people who attend church services. To minimise the chance of error the Bootnecks congregated in a solid block at the rear of the church.For most of the service they did not put a foot wrong.They stood,knelt and sat with carefully observed timeliness.The christening service was approaching its close and they in conformity with the moves of the rest of the congregation,were sitting down,the Pastor made a short address. A man in a pew towards the front stood up.About thirty Marines stood up too.The remainder of the people in the church still seated,turned and looked around and stared,looking mildly astonished.Young girls giggled discreetly,young men sniggered.The Marines stood their groung stolidly.When the solitary man at the front sat down so did the Marines.Outside the church,the service over,the Marines asked one of the English speaking Norwegians about the cause of all the sniggering and giggleing.
"What the Pastor said." explained the Norwegian,"Was: will the father of the child who is to be christened Please stand up.
Aye JR
