Years ago a funny movie came out called “Going South” which depicted what many small towns after the civil war experienced (shortage of men) and how one town had dealt with this issue.

In the movie a woman could “buy” a man which was sentenced to death and marry them. Often these women had no clue what kind of man they were getting as the men were often dragged into town by some law official.

In the movie actress Mary Steenburgen buys actor Jack Nicolson, preventing him from being hung. She had been a spinster with a farm (and a secret goldmine) and looked at him as “labor” instead of a husband.

Her neighbors (many who had also bought a man) let her know that a “woman’s duty” must be done on her side of this arrangement and offered her some advice. One neighbor said, “I lay there and think of canning apricots.” Later in the movie Jack Nicholson shouts at her in front of her neighbors, “I sure did love those canned apricots!”

You may be wondering why I am reminiscing about a movie many people thought was probably not the best work either of these actors had done…but I have to tell you…I remember both my parents howling with laughter at this movie and me-a kid-wondering what could possibly be so funny about “canning apricots.”

Many years later as an adult I called home to discover my parents had changed their answering machine message to “We aren’t here right now so we are probably canning apricots.”

Remembering the movie and this phrase I went out and rented the movie to watch again. I had a mystery I had to solve. I laughed so hard I was tearing up—until I realized my parents were possibly “canning apricots” right that moment. Ewww.

After I married and had kids “canning apricots” became the polite/secret way adults in my family referred to this “activity” in front of kids. I never thought much of it. My kids would ask about it and I’d just say it was some “boring adult activity” they didn’t need to be concerned about.

This summer however, my kids were going through old VCR tapes we were donating to the American Legion for hospitals overseas and they came across “Going South” and decided to watch it. They dragged in the old VCR machine and hooked it up. I came home to see some odd looks on their faces but other than that, nothing which warranted concern.

This morning when my husband and I came downstairs all three of our teenagers yelled “You guys are LOUD when you are in there canning apricots!” and “You didn’t sound like you were bored in there last night!” We all stared at each other for a few seconds of awkwardness and then laughed. My son said, “I will never look at apricots the same.”

It is funny how little saying like that become part of our lives. I wonder if I can get that movie in high def? It seriously is a very funny movie. Our VCR tape of it just left inside a donation bin for some unsuspecting recuperating soldier to view. Perhaps I should have put a warning on it. I don’t want anyone popping stitches over a few “canned apricots.”