SOUP'S ON

SOUP'S ON


The subject of today's blog is soup, very mundane but it brings up a “memory thing'.

Recently Dear Wife and I decided on a light lunch of Campbell's tomato soup with saltine crackers, tomato being my favorite among canned soups. While eating I wondered aloud if today's soup can carried the company's identifying mark of “O1. Dear Wife retrieved that can, and sure enough there it was, the “O1” that I knew more than sixty years ago and thereby hangs a tale.

The tale begins with my honorable discharge from World War II service on December 26, 1945. Oh, happy day! My happiness turned to gloom when I discovered that I was in the army of the unemployed for the first, and only time, in my employment career. My pre-war employer, the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, was not into building ships at that time even though there was some need for shipping. Fortunately my joblessness was short-lived as I was hired by the Campbell Soup Company for the summer tomato season. Long lines of farmer's trucks were already forming at the plant, loaded with tomatoes.

In spite of my inexperience I was sent to the labeling department as an assistant machine operator. My job? Clearing the machine when the cans jammed on the belts, and do so without losing a finger in the process. I must have done a good job because I still have my ten fingers.


With the job was a company “perk” of free soup for lunch and I always chose an “O1” can, so you can see why that choice is still with me.

So, dear readers, when shopping for canned soup you can't go wrong if you look for the brand with the mark “O1.”

More, later.