spap oop(s)

Don C.'s younger brother, my Uncle Al, was a really sweet, funny, and generous man.

I loved to go and visit Uncle Al, Aunt T., Scott, and Alesa. My cousin Scott was just a couple of years younger than me and we got along well.

When I was a teen, we visited them in Bossier City, not long after they had gone on a vacation.

Uncle Al told us one of the greatest stories of miscommunication between husband and wife I have ever heard.

I don't know how y'all's families did vacations, but apparently, Uncle Al and Aunt T. did things much like my parents did.

Husband did most of the driving, while Wife rode shotgun, probably choking back panic from near claustrophobia from all the junk crammed in around her feet and legs.

In my parent's case, there was the obligatory bag of snacks which Sainted Mother had control of, but most important to them was a humongous thermos with coffee.

Anyway, Uncle Al says they settled in for the ride, and had been cruising along the highway for a while, when his internal clock told him it was socially acceptable to start munching on the goodies Aunt T. had stashed around herself.

Now this was on the order of thirty years ago, and I don't remember his exact words of their snack conversation, but here is my paraphrase of their exchange:

Uncle Al: Hey T., could you hand me them spap oops?
Aunt T. : What?!
Uncle Al: Could you let me try some of them spap oops?
Aunt T. : I have no idea what you are talking about. (looks at him as if she doubts his sanity.)
Uncle Al: (points) Right there, by your feet, there is a box of snacks labeled "spap oops," could you PLEASE hand me the box so I can try them?
Aunt T.: (looks at box that she had bought herself, and starts laughing)
Uncle Al: What is so funny?
Aunt T. : (picks up box, and turns it around and shows it to him) These are "doo dads"! I had no idea what you were talking about!
Uncle Al: Well, turn the box upside down like it was when I saw it on the floor and read the label.

Aunt T. reversed the box, and sure enough, the label on the box was indeed "doo dads" in all lower case letters.

"doo dads," when seen upside down, spells "spap oop"

Uncle Al had never seen or heard of a snack called doo dads, so when he glanced down while driving and saw the upside down box, he rightly asked for the spap oops!

It was funnier to hear him tell it though. Aunt T. really thought for a minute that he had gone bonkers.

doo dads were made by Nabisco, and was kinda like chex mix, but different enough to be unique.

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Just for grins and giggles, here's one of the photo scans I made while in Louisiana. That's my Uncle Al on the left, with Don C., my Dad, in their navy uniforms.

The whole upper right corner was missing, and I kinda recreated it using some of the tools in Photoshop Elements. It doesn't look that great up in that area under close inspection, but overall the photo looks much better now that it isn't torn.