Del Monte Foods, the 138-year-old company best known for its canned fruits and vegetables, has filed for bankruptcy and is looking for a buyer.
I’m hoping they find one soon.
Fruit cocktail in heavy syrup was a staple at my grandparents’ Christmas morning breakfasts. Every year, as I ate my bowl of that syrupy goodness at a long table filled with aunts, uncles, and cousins, I wondered why I didn’t get to eat fruit cocktail more often.
It’s so good. Why relegate it to Christmas morning?
As a kid, I promised myself that I would keep a can of fruit cocktail in my pantry at all times as an adult. It would no longer be a Christmas treat.
Then I failed to keep that promise. Never purchased fruit cocktail even once, even though I still think it’s delicious.
I mention this failed promise in a longer story about failing to keep a host of childhood promises, but discovering that I kept the most important promise I ever made as a child.
Last month I told that story on a stage at Charlie’s school. Charlie is featured in the story, so he enjoyed becoming part of the show. At the end of the story, I reached behind the curtain and produced a can of fruit cocktail.
“Tonight I’ll finally keep that promise I made about fruit cocktail, too,” I told the audience of seventh graders. “Charlie and I will eat it together after school today.”
He had never eaten fruit cocktail before.
Six hours later, we sat on the deck, eating bowls of fruit cocktail in heavy syrup.
Charlie loved it. Me, too. Four cans are sitting in my pantry today. It took me a while. Longer than it should.
But promise kept.
Except that the company that makes the brand of fruit cocktail that my grandparents served at Christmas has now declared bankruptcy.
Hopefully, they find a buyers soon. It took me more than 30 years to keep that promise.
I want to keep on keeping.
