History repeats itself, now and then.
My Dad was fond of fruit cocktail from a can. So much so, he often worried we might run out. In our small town, there were no 24-hour grocery stores.
One day, as he often did, he asked me how our supply of fruit cocktail was doing. I said I thought we had lots but I could tell he wasn’t convinced. So I went to the cupboard to check and I pulled out each can I found and set it on the counter. When I was done, there were nine cans sitting there. We had a good laugh over that one but I don’t know whether the evidence had much effect on his worrying.
Thirty-six years later, I was informed by a member of my family today that one of our local stores is having a sale on soup. It might be a good idea to pick some up, I was told.
“Do we need more soup?” I asked. “I think we have quite a bit.”
Nothing left do in situations such as these except to launch a soup investigation. To the cupboards I went and gathered all the evidence and prepared to submit my soup report.
The Hagarty kitchen cupboards, as of Jan. 27, 2020, contain the following cans of soup:
– 21 cans of tomato;
– 10 cans of cream of mushroom;
– 6 cans of chicken noodle;
– 2 cans of cream of chicken;
– 1 can of vegetable;
– 1 can of pea.
In our home are 41 cans of soup. The total number of occupants of the house is two, sometimes swelling to four. There are four large grocery stores within walking distance of our home. In a blizzard or a tsunami, we could still replenish our soup stocks if they were running low and a soup emergency developed. We do not want to be one of those families brought down by a soup emergency.
If we were managing a cruise ship, instead of a three-bedroom bungalow, I believe we would be ready to launch.
Still, the soup is on sale. Tomorrow morning, I will be found wandering the soup aisle, stocking up once again.
Just in case.
©2020 Jim Hagarty
