The bridge between laughing and crying is not long. During submarine deployments, it is customary to tell sea stories on those long boring mid-watches. During one particular mid-watch I told an amazing story that happened to me ten years earlier while stationed on my last submarine. This story shouldn't be told when your boss is part of the group because there could be repercussions that you may feel later.

My story begins when I was on a submarine that was home-ported in Vallejo, CA. Like most naval bases it also has a McDonald's. The submarine was delayed for a scheduled underway this particular day and my division and myself decided to go to McDonald's for lunch. This McDonald's was laid out as any other McDonald's with a side entrance and a long seating area down the side. Most of the submarine crew was already there sitting on the side seats, and I proceeded up to the counter to place my order. I ordered a "Combo Meal" that came to $4.85 and gave the cashier a ten-dollar bill. She placed a five-dollar bill and the change on my tray as I was leaving. When I came around the corner to the area my shipmates were sitting, someone opened the doors to enter the rest

Just a little note about this time in the story, my shipmates that are listening to me are very engrossed in the story. I noticed in particular that the Officer of the Deck, which coincidently happened to be from Vallejo and had visited that McDonald's in his youth. He stated that he and his girlfriend even sat at that particular table. Well hearing that I had his attention, I began to make my story sort of directed towards him to draw him closer to my story.

As you can see the bridge between laughter and crying, is indeed, not that far apart.

Well now is when my story demands a brief pause to gain a little more suspense. I briefly paused to glance at my story telling audience, and noticed the most intrigued shipmate again was the Officer of the Deck. No other shipmate said a word, then the Officer of the Deck still in suspense asked "Chief what was in the bag!" Thinking now as I looked back on my next comment, I may have made a different choice of shipmate's to hook into my story. But since I decided to really get this officer, I delivered my punch line. I said "Sir, BULLSHIT like I'm feeding you!" Well that just made everyone in the control room just bust out laughing really loud. Being that this officer was the only one that fell for it, he did not see the laughter in it, especially since he was the brunt of it. He looked at me, looked back at the rest of my shipmates, and I saw him just getting hot under the collar. After taking it in a little his response was "Chief get out of Control, you are relieved of your watch station." Now the focus was towards me and I proceeded to carry out the orders that were given to me by this irate officer that had been belittled in front of many junior personnel. I left my watch station and proceeded out of control. I just wanted to

Some common words found in the essay are:
Combo Meal, JC Penny's, Officer Deck, Laughing Crying, Chief Control, Vallejo CA, BULLSHIT I'm, five-dollar bill, officer deck, table lady children, lady children sitting, little boy, lady children, children sitting, submarine story, watch station, noticed wasn't, approached bag, laughing crying,
Approximate Word count = 1215
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)