For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 01, 2014

SURPRISE breakfast, dinner and supper for the nex few days.

back in the day we could buy unlabeled cans at our commissary in Hawaii, they did write on the can what it contained, or some were actually marked from the factory. Sometimes we had mystery meals but these cans were 10 cents apiece compared to 59 cents plus per can.

I vaguely remember this (I think), because my youngest sister was a little one – does anyone have the year this one first appeared?

A friend worked for a grocery where they sold unlabeled cans to the employees for 5 cents each. He stocked his pantry with them, and every night he’d pick three cans and, whatever they were, that was dinner.

Reminds me when our youngest did the same trick. We had ‘surprise’ meals for the next few days. Just reminded her about it by asking her to read today’s installment. She laughed at it !

SUSAN, have you tried to open a can with a pull tab?Richard would need to be 10 years older, and a whole lot stronger to prise up the tab, much less get the can open.

I remember my mom picking up some unlabeled cans but never too many, but it was fun when she opened them and we found out what our veggie for the night would be.

My mom told me I did exactly that, remove all the can labels, at age two. She kept the canned food on shelves behind the kitchen door. After the label removing incident, my dad made the shelves inaccessible to small hands by devising a simple hook latch between the door and the shelves.It opened upward and required someone pushing against the door at the same time to release it.

“What’s for dinner tonight, dear?”“Surprise!”“Again?”

When my son was a teenager, I had one unlabeled can in the cabinet where I kept canned soup. I knew exactly what was in it, and suggested to my son, he wouldn’t like it. .One day, my son and his friends decided to have soup for lunch. They each picked out a can (teenage boy appetites!)One decided he wanted the unlabeled can. My son cautioned against it, saying if he opened it, he had to eat it all. But his friend claimed he liked surprises.That is what he got: He had a can of almond paste for lunch.

Friends of mine in high school used to have “pot parties”. You were supposed to bring a can with no label, and they’d dump all of the mystery contents into one big pot and make a stew. Most of the time it was pretty good.. others were, well, interesting.

Elly has the same expression and remark as Phil did when Georgia stole his cigarettes. “you WHAT?!?!”

That could totally happen. Kids playing with cans is fine- there was a time back when, when people were supposed to get work done during the day, and not stare at the kids 24/7, and you know from the sounds/corner of your eye that they are playing with something not dangerous, but you might not expect that!

Clearly, most of the parents here have been through that. None of my kids did, so I would totally fall for that trick if I were watching a small kid.

I love how a PP thinks that cooking whilst setting the table with 3 kids in the house is “sloth”.

These stories sure do make families grow together and laugh together, by the sound of it.

At a grils wedding shower, everyone brought 2 cans of food. One was to be fruit and one anything else. We then cut the labels off and mixed them up and reattached them. She was thriled to get a box of food but what a supprise when she opened a can of peaches, spinach !

Liz you are suppose to be watching him. But it is your fault Ellie that is your responsibility. Wake up

One of my earliest memories is doing the same thing. After I took off the labels, I would roll the cans across the kitchen floor, aiming at mom’s feet while while she was ironing.

Michal did the same thing when Lizzie when the out naked