• Home
  • About Jim
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Reviews
  • Order
  • Contact
  • Excerpts
JIM WARREN

Road Apples and Ketchup: Winter and War

1/15/2020

0 Comments

 
 In 1943 I was nine years old, at home in Kindersley Saskatchewan. The war was on and food was scarce and choices limited. My mother was a quick cook with no frills but it was always good. With one exception!  She made tomato soup with milk and canned tomatoes and never bothered to remove the tomato cores. I hated that soup. I hated the soft, sloppy, slimy, tomato gobs attached to the cores that floated in the soup. I would sit and gag for hours over it but got no relief. My parents would not bail me out no matter how long I sat. I said to my dad after a particularly long session, just to give him an idea about the seriousness of my situation, "I'd sooner eat shit." I remember this as vividly as if it was yesterday. It was in the dead of winter then. He went out to the roadway and picked up three frozen road apples. He brought them in the house, arranged them on a plate, put ketchup on them and said, "Take your choice." I ate the soup.
   Frozen road apples  were usually piled up to act as goal posts for road shinny and also to be a puck. I never in the past considered them useful to encourage eating in childhood. In the meantime, in Saskatchewan, when a contrived and non deft argument is made to a parent, the apt metaphor is , "Don't eat that Elmer, that's horse shit." I now have two great grandchildren and have learned to never give  food advice.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.


    For Jim's past posts, check out his old blog here:
    Elderly Eclectic Gentleman Blog

    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly