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JO JANOSKI resides in Pittsburgh, PA, USA with her husband, Ron.
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Why eat canned soup?
Excuse me while I digress...
Why eat canned soup?
Why do we eat canned soup? The question occurred to me as I bent over my bowl of Campbell's vegetable soup. The discarded can on the sink stared back as I sipped. I studied the condensed soup blobs spilled on top of the ubiquitous Campbell's red and white label. The empty can presented a forlorn picture, much like the mediocre product itself.
Why not make fresh soup? If you cheat and use bouillon, it doesn't take long. Or if you make your own stock, all the better. Cleaning and chopping the veggies is no big deal; or cheater that you are, frozen veggies or dehydrated ones are an option. Or a combination of dried and fresh carrots and potatoes. Left over meat, pasta flung in, the possibilities are endless. And then lunch could be an event instead of a boring bowl of Campbells.
Because of the memories, that's why. We eat canned soup because of the memories. Enjoying my soup, I can be ten years old again. Ten years old and sitting with my mother, having lunch as we always did. I rushed home from grammar school to eat with her and my brother. We had our soup and all was right with the world.
The fifties housewife did not place an emphasis or fresh like we do today. Canned soup was fine by them, a nice convenience no one ever questioned. But then again, they spent their time shining windows, vacuuming, and ironing all-cotton clothes, being the excellent, not housekeepers, but homemakers, that they were. All that, and they were there to listen at lunch to our problems and stories. To smile and encourage.
Ah, there is the difference! We may eat fresh vegetable soup, but do we eat it at the table together for lunch? No. Each family member grabs it on the fly whenever it fits his schedule. So the soup is good today, the company not so much. Mom may have served canned soup, but it was served with abundant love and attention in good company every day.
We may have good, fresh veggies in our soup, but Mom's canned was still better. Hers made memories. |
Posted: 09:25 AM, November 12, 2007 in Essays |
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Hello
What a wonderful story and oh so true. Thanks
Cheerily
IJK |
Posted by IJK at 12:04 PM, November 12, 2007 |
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| I, too, have memories of Mr. Campbell's most famous product. On the seventeenth day of August, 1958, (I remember because it was his birthday) my father received several stitches on his forehead, the totally-intended result of a well-thrown can of Campbell's soup (tomato, as I recall, although I can't be sure and it probably doesn't matter at all in the context of my explanation). It would seem that my mother rather resented the not-so-subtle (not to mention inebriated) reminder that grandma's homemade veggie soup was superior to store-bought. |
Posted by Bubba at 12:19 PM, November 12, 2007 |
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Tomato eh?
JO
Tomato! Good choice! The soup would match the blood. |
Posted by JO at 05:04 PM, November 12, 2007 |
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canned memories
oz
Jeez, here I thought I ate canned soup cause I'm a lazy SOB. Come to think of it though, I cant recall the last time I ate canned soup. Probably for lunch at work during one of my financialy tight weeks. The soup from my youth was the ever evolving soup. All the leftovers went into it so it continualy morphed thruout the season. Never thought of it then but some of those soups may have lasted several weeks meaning at least some part of the fianl soup was like way old...
yewwww |
Posted by oz at 04:14 PM, November 13, 2007 |
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| I love Campells Chicken Noodle Soup. In the winter I eat it a lot. Ive been sick and out of pocket. I need to get back to writing and reading. |
Posted by Anonymous at 05:37 AM, November 15, 2007 |
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| Sorry but Im Terry and just left the last comment. |
Posted by Anonymous at 05:38 AM, November 15, 2007 |
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