I was driving around Northern San Joaquin County one foggy Sunday afternoon in late winter 2003 listening to a local NPR music program. I had just turned on the show (one I had never listened to before) as the host was introducing a song I had never heard by an singer/songwriter I had never heard of: "Canned Goods" by Greg Brown off his "The Live One" album. It grabbed me! My father had passed away a few weeks before. It was foggy and cold outside. It reminded me of the love that I felt for my father and my own grandmother (Nana) and the good times that I had had in her concrete block house in Oakdale, California in the late 1960's. I remember dancing around with Nana and my sister Julie with "symphony" music playing on my grandmother's stereo system which was housed in a wood cabinet as large as a dining room hutch with a fiber optic lamp providing the only light for the living room dance party.
"Let those December winds bellow 'n' blow I'm as warm as a July tomato.
[chorus:] Peaches on the shelf Potatoes in the bin Supper's ready, everybody come on in Taste a little of the summer, Taste a little of the summer, You can taste a little of the summer my grandma's put it all in jars.
Well, there's a root cellar, fruit cellar down below Watch you head now, and down you go
And there's [repeat chorus]
Maybe you're weary an' you don't give a damn I bet you never tasted her blackberry jam.
[repeat chorus]
Ah, she's got magic in her - you know what I mean She puts the sun and rain in with her green beans.
[repeat chorus]
What with the snow and the economy and ev'ry'thing, I think I'll jus' stay down here and eat until spring.
[repeat chorus]
When I go to see my grandma I gain a lot of weight With her dear hands she gives me plate after plate. She cans the pickles, sweet & dill She cans the songs of the whippoorwill And the morning dew and the evening moon 'N' I really got to go see her pretty soon 'Cause these canned goods I buy at the store Ain't got the summer in them anymore. You bet, grandma, as sure as you're born I'll take some more potatoes and a thunderstorm.
Peaches on the shelf Potatoes in the bin Supper's ready, everybody come on in, now Taste a little of the summer, Taste a little of the summer, Taste a little of the summer, My grandma put it all in jars.
Let those December winds bellow and blow, I'm as warm as a July tomato.
[repeat chorus]"