When we lived in the Philippines the American Embassy had a compound located right on Manila Bay that had a swimming pool, restaurant and a large bar area. The “club” was staffed by Filipinos. We usually stopped by the club a few times a week for happy hour.
One thing that you should know about the Filipinos is that when speaking English, they often get their P’s and F’s mixed up. Claire’s hairdresser once asked if we had an electric pan. Claire thought she was referring to a cooking utensil heated by electricity, like an electric skillet that was popular back then. Actually she was asking about an electric fan — something used to keep cool in the Philippines.
Well, back to happy hour…. in the early 70s there was a (somewhat) popular drink called a Freddie Fuddpucker. Some our friends insisted on ordering that drink and then asking the Filipino waiter to repeat what they had ordered to be sure they got it right. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what Freddie Fuddpucker comes out if you reverse the Ps and Fs. Everyone knew the routine, including the Filipinos, but it happened just about every week anyway. It was just one of those stupid things that everyone thought was funny… actually it seemed a little cruel to me at the time. But today, listening to the news and talking to people — maybe it was just funny…..
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