[Joeaksa]

Assume that you guys have heard of the story of her wanting to eat dinner with Ted Turner up in Montana a while back? If not, here is the story...

The first is an email sent to me by an American Legion friend, and the second part is from my experiences there.

Joe A

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One fine Montana restaurant

This is a great story, I wish I was closer to Montana! The radio station America FM was doing one of their "Is anyone listening" bits this morning. This first one was, "Ever have a celebrity pull up and say 'Do you know who I am?' routine."

A woman called in and said that a few years back, while visiting her cattle rancher uncle in Billings, MT., they had an occasion to go to dinner at a restaurant that does not take reservations. The wait was about 45 minutes. Lots of other rancher types and their spouses were already waiting.

In comes Ted Turner and Jane Fonda. They want a table. The hostess says they'll have to wait about 45 minutes.

Jane Fonda asks the hostess if she knows who she is.

"Yes, but you'll still have to wait 45 minutes"

Then Jane says, "Is the manager in?"

The manager comes out, "May I help you?"

" Do you know who I am?" ask both Jane and Ted. "Yes, but these folks have all been waiting already and I can't put you in ahead of them"

Then Ted asks to speak to the owner. The owner comes out. Jane again asks, "Do you know who I am?"

The owner says, "Yes, I do. Do you know who I am?

I am the owner of this restaurant and a Vietnam Veteran. Not only will you not get a table ahead of all of my friends and neighbors here, but you also will not be eating in my restaurant tonight or any other night. Good bye."

Only in America, what a great country!

To all who received this e-mail.

This is a true story and the name of the steak house is :

Sir Scott's Oasis Steakhouse
204 W Main
MANHATTAN, MT 59741
(406) 284-6929

If you ever get there, give this fella a sharp salute, buy a steak and tip the waitress!

Keep passing this on. We should never forget this unprosecuted traitor!
And let's not forget what "our gal" Hillary said to the troops in Iraq, "This war has no support from the American public"!!!!

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As Paul Harvey would say, I need to tell everyone the "rest of the story"...

I was in the Oasis a few weeks after this happened. I lived in Montana for a while and a friend of mine had told me what had happened, and that this was the best steak resturant in the state, so we stopped by.

Sat at the bar with a couple of friends and started talking to the bartender. Mentioned Hanoi Jane and her visit and she laughed and said that everyone wanted to know about it.

Here is what she said

"It was a busy weekend night, and all the tables were full and there were a few people waiting to sit down to enjoy a meal. A nice SUV drives up and Ted Turner gets out and comes inside. He asks about getting a table for two and is told that its a 45 minute wait.

He then says "do you know who I am? I am Ted Turner and normally do not wait anywhere." The young lady at the cash register asked him to please wait while she got the owner. Scott came out and shook hands with Mr. Turner. Ted asked if there was anything that could be done and Scott told him "Mr. Turner, you are an American hero in many ways and I can find a table or make room for you in a few minutes" and at that Ted told him he would park the car and return with another person.

Scott then asked if it was his wife and Turner replied yes. Scott then told Turner "I will make room for you but that's it. Hanoi Jane is not welcome in my place at anytime and she will never be served in this resturant as long as I own it."

Turner turned on his heels and left in a huff. "

This was what we were told by the barkeep and we had no reason not to believe it.

Fast forward a few months. A very good friend of mine flies a trip to Montana and is sitting in the FBO (airport office) waiting for a few hours. He asks the people working there what there is to do in this area and they said that he could go to "Sir Scotts Oasis" for one of the best steaks around.

Bill says that he does not have enough time for that but then asks if this is the place where Hanoi Jane was refused service. A couple of the people say that it was and Bill says that he heard about it from a friend but considering that we are both pilots figured that about half of it was BS. One of the ladies working behind the counter asked what he had been told and he recounted the story.

After doing so the woman asked Bill if he wanted to know what really happened and he said yes. She then proceeded to tell my friend that the story that he had been told was totally accurate but that I had left out somethings that most people did not know. He asked her how she knew and she replied "I was there having dinner with my husband and his organization" that night.

The "rest of the story" is that it was a few weeks before Christmas and the resturant was totally full due to their being a Christmas party being held there. The party was for the local chapter of the VFW, the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization! The mere mention of Hanoi Jane gets them very unhappy and for her to show up and demand special treatment during their Christmas dinner just was not going to happen. There were loads of VietNam Vets there that night and had she gotten in the door, the chances of her making it out alive were not good!

That, ladies and gents, is the rest of the story. Everytime I get near Manhattan Montana, there is no question where I go to eat. Its well worth it.

Joe A