Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Storm-ready?


Jackson Street
Originally uploaded by Quincunx.
We thought that tornadoes only happened outside the Urban grid, but that's apparently as fictional as the Wizard of Oz. Atlanta got walloped this weekend and we're getting another big storm today, which has made me nostalgic for a homespun part of my past: the Mormon Cupboard.

We learned about the Mormon Cupboard from our mother. She’s not Mormon, but we think she heard it on NPR once. Anyhow, the Mormon cupboard evolved from their belief that everyone should have a store of food and goods to last a year for the end times or nuclear war or a family reunion or something.

Ours was actually not a cupboard, but a series of shelves going down to our big, cool basement. That’s where Mom stockpiled all kinds of food. (A big plus when you live in an area where school regularly shuts down for a week.)

Here are some of the things from our past that I'd wished I'd procured before the power cut out and the roads got blocked:

Mini shrimp in a can, cocktail sauce, and Wheat Thins. (Put one on the other in reverse order for a surprisingly satisfying snack treat.) Pop-tarts, cookies and other goodies that you might otherwise skip because they are jam-packed with preservatives. And a trusty camping stove to expand the culinary options to hot drinks and Spam.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I was glad to read of the "Mormon Cupboard!" It served us well in the Land of Blizzards,also known as Norther New York. Some other handy items were dried milk,canned fruit, and dried fruit.
Don't open the freezer unless absolutely necessary and things will stay frozen for several days. We used to bury ours in a Coleman cooler in the snow.
YoMama

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