"Can I get a ...?" is old

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

It seems that this has been around for a long time. It does not sound strange 
to me at all. Here is something that I found on a Google Book Search; the 
author was an American:

Pioneering in Cuba: A Narrative of the Settlement of La Gloria, the First 
American Colony in... - Page 70
by James Meade Adams - 1901 - 220 pages
Of Mr. Richardson, the man in charge, I blandly inquired: “Can I get a tin 
pail?
... “Can I get a tin dish or an earthen dish or a wooden dish? ...

It is clear from the context that he is actually asking for these things in a 
store, not merely asking if it is possible to get such things.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org