Thursday, June 18, 2009

Pickled Onions


Yesterday I visited Fort Macon State Park, with the idea of taking some pictures. Wandering through this Civil War fort, I found this replica of a storage room. To the right of the Vinegar cask is a keg for Pickled Onions. Now that brought back some memories!

I poked my camera through the bars and took another shot. I guess they got their pickled onions from New York.

We used to get ours from Heinz. I had trouble finding a picture of the bottle - I don't think Heinz makes them anymore. At least not in the United States.

Here's a view of the right-hand side of the storage room. Please note that there's another Pickled Onions keg in front of the table.
Today, June 18th, is/was my father's birthday. He was born in 1913, and died almost 20 years ago. His name was Jean Edward Marchesseault. "Jean" is French for "John" and I was named after him. And this Sunday will be Father's Day, so he's been on my mind. Now back to the Pickled Onions. My mom would buy jars of them, but neither she nor my sister would touch them. But my dad and I, boy, did we love our pickled onions! For us, they went with everything.....

A couple days ago, I received a CD of pictures from my cousin, Paul. He had been collecting old family pictures, scanning them, and he kindly sent me a CD. The CD included this picture of my dad, taken during World War II. Several things came together for me - the CD, the pictures at the fort, my dad's birthday, Father's Day - and the pickled onions. So my way of honoring my dad's special day is to put him in a place where he could eat all the pickled onions he wanted. I accomplished this using Photoshop. Here's looking at you, Dad!

5 comments:

Rosa-Munda said...

Hi Jean,
Wonderful story, and I love the photo of your dad. The original Heinz factory is about 10 miles from here! I haven't seen Heinz pickled onions in years - Haywards or supermarket brands are all we get now.
Ros

Pepper Cory said...

I love this idea Jean. Great "new" photo.

p said...

all i can think is OH MY GOD I WANT ALL OF THOSE BARREL RINGS AND I WANT THEM NOW
fun place, thanks for showing us and telling us some history too!

Jean Baardsen said...

Thanks, Friends!
Ros - that's cool about the Heinz factory being near you! When I think of edibles like pickled onions, I also think of Branston Pickle. When Ed and I wintered in Gibraltar with our boat, I ate several Ploughman's lunches with Branston Pickle, and would get it in jars in the local supermarket to use on the boat. Are you near that factory too?
Paula - Yes, beautiful barrel rings, but they're behind locked bars and you'd have to invade a fort to get to them! :o)

Robin said...

What a great way to use photoshop...I really need to get this. Whenever I see what you can do with it, it makes my mind race.
R