Canned life

When I was young, I lived in Itaewon. Maybe that’s why we had many American things in our house. Every Thursday, a lady we called “Megane” (which means “glasses”) would visit, and that was the day she brought lots of food. She worked at the U.S. military base and wore a long, wrinkled skirt. She would waddle into the house, but once she left, she moved like a bird flying away.

She magically pulled out all kinds of American goods from under her skirt—canned food, toilet paper, cheese, oranges... almost everything except ice cream, which my father always asked for. My favorite was Spam. It tasted amazing on hot rice.

When my mom told me to study, I pretended to read books but secretly looked at something else—the Sears catalog. It was thick like an encyclopedia, filled with pictures of American products. Even though I didn’t know English, I could understand what the items were. I looked at it all day without getting bored. I used to read it like a fairy tale and then fall asleep with it as a pillow.

Megane mostly brought food, but sometimes a man we called “the broker” came too. He was plump and oily-looking. If my father ordered electronics, the broker quickly got them from the U.S. base. Our storage closet was full of unopened boxes. My mother saved them for my wedding. After I moved to America without getting married, I wonder what happened to all those things. My younger sister followed me a year later.

In New York, I lived in the same building as an old couple from Austria. After World War I, they moved to America when they were 29, dreaming of a better life. They had no children and were too old to go out easily. They lived on the 4th floor with no elevator. Once a week, I brought them milk. Their old table with a red and white checkered cloth sat by the window where you could see the Empire State Building. On the table were their half-drunk coffee and toast with butter. Their oven was always clean—maybe they mostly ate canned food for lunch and dinner. They lived in that apartment until they passed away at age 95, never moving to a nursing home.

Nowadays, because of COVID-19, I eat canned food more often too. Some taste okay. If it doesn’t taste good, I mix it with flour and eggs and make a pancake out of it. People tell me I should eat better. But canned food is easy to prepare, and I’m feeling okay these days.

When I was little, I often saw American grandmas walking around Itaewon. They had fukashi hair, pink lipstick, and wore shiny polyester clothes. I never liked heavy clothes, necklaces, rings, or luxury leather bags. I preferred light polyester clothes, cloth bags, and canned food. Now, as time passes, I feel like I’m slowly becoming one of those cheap-looking American grandmas too.