Apple a day and hungry G.I.s

Long before I went to work in a grocery store way back in 1943 we sang “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Many farms had orchards and often times if you did not own an apple tree you could pick up apples for little or nothing at all. You had to bring your own containers and pick the apples yourself.

There were no worm holes in the apples as the many birds that abounded took care of the worm problem. Now the apples are sprayed about 10 times before they are harvested. We almost eradicated the birds in our zeal to keep the apples worm free. There is probably a lot of truth in the statement about apples and doctors. If an apple a day keeps the doctor away an orange a day will keep the dentist at bay. The citrus fruit is a well known fighter of plaque. The fruit and vegetable health documentation goes on and on so I’ll stop with those two.

When Jean and I were growing up we both lived in houses with a cellar or sometimes a cave. These were used for storm shelters and they were also where potatoes and apples were stored. Incidentally, these two items compliment each other. Apples give off a gas that slows down the sprouting of potatoes. Never store potatoes near onions, they seem to work the opposite and neither will have the shelf life they should have.

We took apples for granted while growing up. We often times had an apple in our school lunch. Then suddenly we grow up overnight. The depression is over and WWII arrived about the same time.

I was in the Army serving with an infantry division. Army food was good for the most part. Even C-rations were edible but certainly not what one would order if his mother or spouse said, “What do you want for supper?” We sometimes got fresh fruit but not on a regular basis.

One day our company was marching down a dusty road. We were singing that song “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” and hating every step we took Suddenly our platoon leader spotted an apple tree. It was about 100 yards to our left; every one, the officers included, ran to the tree. They were bright red and the tree was loaded.

The 300 or so men in  the company of infantry left the tree like a swarm of locusts had hit it. We were marching and eating apples with no cadence except boots on a dirty road. Sometime later our commanding officer, Captain O’Rourke, told everyone to finish what they had in their mouth and discard the cores.

We went on marching down that dusty road but we had a new version of the beer song. We sang, “99 apples on that tree, if one apple should happen to fall 98 apples left for me.”

Most of us had fresh apples for the next few days. I’m sure those apples did keep the doctor away for a few of us. 

For nearly 25 years, until his death in 2015, retired grocer Don Behm wrote a column for The Storm Lake Times, “Cracker Barrel.” Don’s everyman view of everyday life was a favorite of Times readers.  This was first published on Nov. 30, 1994.