In September, 1938, the Von Trapp Family, having left their home country of Austria, boarded the ship, American Farmer, headed for New York. Mrs. Maria Von Trapp, eager to learn the new language, went among the American passengers, who were friendly enough to teach her various words and phrases. One in particular, Dr. Johnson, took her aside for lessons. Without realizing it, she learned a lot of slang from him.

Over time, she became quite fluent in English, enough to write the fascinating account of her family’s life. It is from this narrative that we find a charming incident that occurred shortly after the Von Trapps’ arrival in America. They were invited to a Bishop’s house for dinner. Maria Von Trapp describes it as below:

"By that time we had learned that there are Bishops and Bishops. Some are informal and paternal, so that you can almost forget who they are and say, full of confidence, ‘Father.’ Some, however, can never quite take off the mitre, so to speak. They are Bishops every inch of them. There you meet all the dignity and authority of the Church. It is quite breathtaking.

"Such a one had invited us to dinner, and, of course, it was a formal dinner with speeches and so on. There were also his Chancellor, a few Monsignori, and other dignitaries, and, sitting next to the Bishop, I was exhausting my best English a mile a minute.

"After grace was said, on the way from the dining room into the library, the Bishop and I met in the doorway. Politely he motioned me to go first, but, of course, I knew better, and wanted His Excellency by all means to precede me. Motioning to each other, we caused a traffic jam. Then that same spark enlightened me (hurray for Dr. Johnson!). ‘If you want someone to leave the room quickly, just say…’

"And so, looking up into the Bishop’s eyes, I said confidently and with my best enunciation:

‘P-lease, Bishop - scram.’

"The effect on his entourage was absolutely petrifying, and only the Bishop’s hearty laughter prevented some sure collapses."