CORNED BEEF CHILI
With the snow falling today and hearing dire predictions of a "blizzard" I am reminded that I have lived through two REAL blizzards. During the Blizzard of 1950, we lived on Myers Road, back in a lane about a quarter mile from the road. My father couldn't get home and had to stay at work. My brothers and I were happy because we were out of school and we had a TV. When the electricity went off, we didn't care because everything was still fun. Because of where we lived, we were snowbound for a week.
The snow was as high as the fence posts and the boys were digging tunnels, making snow-women and having snowball fights. That was the time a brother dared me to put my tongue on a metal railing. Each time I've seen The Christmas Story I think back about how I was dared to put my tongue on the railing during the blizzard. Mother rushed out with hot water and relieved my suffering.
Although we were blissfully unaware, of course Mother had to worry about feeding six kids. Thankfully she was very creative. She had run out of fresh meat but she had Spam and canned corned beef to use. We'd had vegetable soup, bean soup, and potato soup--food that "goes a long way--soups! One day as we sat down for dinner she had prepared Corned Beef Chili; it was like chili but with canned corned beef instead of ground beef. I thought it was delicious.
For years, when Mother, my brothers, and I would reminisce about the blizzard we would always exclaim about that corned beef chili. One day in the 1970s I came home from work and Mother said she'd invited all the family for a special meal of CORNED BEEF CHILI. I sat down with great anticipation. After a few bites, I realized that it was possibly the WORST thing I have ever tasted and from the looks on the faces of the others assembled, all agreed. Norman said, "I always told you it was awful!"
I ordered pizza for everyone.
Ah, memories!
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