In September of 1944, my parents were part of the Polish Home Army's uprising against the Nazis. When 
the fighting ended and the Nazis claimed victory, my parents were shipped off to a prisoner of war camp in Germany - my mother was 21.
While I was growing up, she often related stories to me about the misery, suffering, and near starvation that they endured until the end of the war in 1945. But there was always one thing that made her day in the camp - and that was Spam. Spam in a can, that is.
The Blue Cross delivered monthly packages to the POW camps (which operated under the Geneva Convention treaty to treat prisoners with a certain level of care.) She loved the cigarettes and chocolate because they would trade those with the guards for other foods. But she never traded away her ration of Spam.
According to Wikipedia, it was introduced in 1937 and became popular during World War II. From Wikipedia:
The difficulty of delivering fresh meat to the front during World War II saw Spam become a ubiquitous part of the U.S. soldier's diet. It became variously referred to as "ham that didn't pass its physical", "meatloaf without basic training",[1] and "Special Army Meat". Over 150 million pounds of Spam were purchased by the military before the war's end.[9]
Fast forward to my life - and my mother incorporating Spam into our menu more often than we fancied.
She was - admitting it herself - not a great cook. She could make an excellent Polish meal such as pierogi or stuffed cabbage, but other than that, my father, brother, and I silently endured her enthusiastic attempts at Spam meals. We were treated to such mouth-watering delicacies as:
Deep friend spam.
Spam tossed with spaghetti.
Spam and cheese sandwiches.
Spam casserole.
We never had the heart to complain (too much) for we understood the deep-rooted place from which her love of Spam came. While my father had been at the same camp, he never developed a taste for Spam. So on it went.
Now that I think back on it, the Spam meals were probably better than some of her creations. She used to type her recipes on 3x5 index cards - one was called "Apple Delight." I still have that card - except in my 6th grade handwriting it says "Apple Fright."
So is there any coincidence that there is both Spam in a can and spam email? Nope!
Again, according to Wikipedia, Spam is ubiquitous and unescapable - thus lending its name to those messages we can't get away from.
More Spam trivia:
- By 2007, 7 billions cans of Spam had been sold
- No ones knows the origin of the name for certain because Hormel keeps that a secret. But some popular beliefs are: an abbreviation for "spiced ham" or "spare meat."
- 3.8 cans of Spam are eaten every second in the United States
- Hawaii serves a sort of Spam sushi
- Spam is found on McDonald's menus in Guam
- North American Spam is made in the US - in Austin, Minnesota and Fremont, Nebraska.
- There is a Spam museum in Austin, Minnesota
- Spam was featured in a Monty Python skit called "Spam," - what else?
And what's it made of anyway? The revolting tinned stuff (I can say it now, Mom!) contains chopped pork shoulder, ham, salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrate.
Have you ever enjoyed Spam?
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