Can-Do

No offense to Peter Durand. I’m glad I can enjoy canned foods. Who doesn’t love the metallic taste of peas, or chili that has spent a few months convalescing on a grocery shelf? I love his lack of foresight though; he figured out how to seal food in, but patrons needed a hammer and a chisel to get it out. It only took 48 years to find a solution. That makes me laugh. My praise goes to Ezra Warner, who in 1858 figured out a way to open cans less forcibly; the only problem was that each can had to be opened before it left the store. And so that is why my heart belongs to William Lyman, who in 1870, developed a can opener that could open cans in the comfort of one’s own home without the threat of shrapnel. Sweet William, I thank you for the pleasing taste of peaches in the middle of Ohio’s dark iciness, for soup that melts my snowman children, and for refried beans straight from sunny Mexico in the dead of winter.

And while we are on the topic of cans, I cannot fail to mention America’s favorite, beer in a can. January 24, 1935, the Kruger Brewing Company of Richmond, Virginia sold the first canned beer, “Krueger Cream Ale”. One week to the day before the birth of my father. I hardly think that is a coincidence. I think I speak for my dad when I say we are both grateful for the pop top tab and its unmistakable sound and refreshing taste. Just wonder what took them so long!