Pick a Can, Any Can

For Father's Day yesterday, my brother the animator posted some sketches for a cartoon episode he's working on based on one of our father's favourite activities when we were growing up.

Back then, grocery stores would sell canned goods whose labels had fallen off for dirt cheap—like 5 or 10 cents. (I don't think they're allowed to even sell them like this anymore, but I digress...) Then, when it came down to choosing a vegetable to go with dinner or some fruit for dessert, he would bring up one of the mystery cans and we'd all keep our fingers crossed that whatever came out of it was something actually edible.

The cartoon tells the story much better than I just did, so I highly recommend you check it out. But even better than the cartoon itself is Dad's comment on it, which John also copied to the end of the post.

My father pointed out to me that someone had added a comment that said, “OMG this is classic, imagine eating becomes an adventure,” which made me realize that this was probably one of our first adventure experiences as a family. :) So the story fits in perfectly with my blog as well.

It then occurred to me that people could still try this one themselves, though in a somewhat limited fashion due to the aforementioned change in store policies. You could simply buy a bunch of canned goods, remove the labels at home, and then just mix them all up on your own shelves. Pick a different one every day and take your chances! As my father points out, you could be in for a very pleasant surprise:

“I'm sure you could come up with quite and adventure, especially, when the cans turn out to have treats, like slices peaches, fruit cocktale, black cherries, etc, occasionally cat or dog food, which was ok as we had one of each those days.”

And if you want to see the inspiration for all this posting, here you go:

Thanks for the blog idea Dad!

Comments

[Charmian Christie]

I just love this story. I smell an essay!

I can't compete with the label-less tins, but I think my mom used to buy dented cans at reduced prices. The only mystery was involved guessing how she'd try to sneak veggies into the dish.

Thanks for the Father's Day smile. Your dad sounds like a wonderful man.

Charmian

[Ruth]

Thanx for sharing Elizabeth....I LOVED the story...touching and funny. Hope you don't mind that I shared with some folks from work who know you...

[Carolyn Erickson]

Loved this! This is surely part of where you got your sense of adventure!

I've heard stories that my mother, as a young divorcee with three kids (before she met my father) did this to survive.

They never knew if they were having beets or green beans with supper, but I never even thought about the possibility of dog or cat food. :)