My father had a visceral aversion to hot dogs, stemming from his military service during World War II.
Stationed on an Air Force base in southern England, he claimed that all his daily meals for a nine-month spell had consisted solely of canned Vienna Sausage, because the mess could obtain no other food.
After that, he couldn't even look at a spiced ham product without growing nauseous.
I don't recall ever seeing him eat a hot dog; not at a picnic, not at the drive-in, not even at the ball park.
Our family, as a result, also never ate Spam.
You might say, as youngsters, we were Spam-deprived.
(Oddly, we did often eat Taylor's Ham, a New Jersey-made "pork roll" hardly different from Spam except that, to comply with residents' taste, you would fry it to the consistency of saddle leather.)
Spam, not to be confused with electronic junk mail, has a sovereign past among canned lunchmeats.
Invented in 1937, the pork mash was Minnesota meatpacker Jay Hormel's way of monetizing the least desirable part of the pig, its shoulders.
Cooked and canned in a vacuum so it wouldn't "sweat" while unrefrigerated, the emulsified "miracle meat" got the name Spam at a company New Year's Eve party, when the guests were asked to name Hormel's latest product.
One guest blurted “Spam” and it stuck.
Three years later, 70% of Americans were eating the stuff.
Housewives bought 40 million cans of Spam in 1940, eager to see if Hormel's ad campaign was true: "Slice it, dice it, fry it, bake it. Cold or hot, Spam hits the spot."
But Spam really took off in 1942, when the Pentagon started to buy it—along with every other canned lunchmeat—by the boatload, to feed GIs in Europe and the Pacific.
Over 100 million pounds of Spam were shipped abroad.
The GIs, of course, despised it, saying "it's the real reason war is hell."
But locals felt differently.
In England and the Asian Pacific, civilians—the majority at the point of starvation—scarfed Spam up, instantly making it a menu staple morning, noon and night.
They called Spam a "godsend."
Their avidity meant that Spam would find its way onto main courses, served with everything from eggs to fish, toast to rice, cheese to vegies.
Worldwide, Hormel has sold over eight billion cans of Spam since 1937.
