"The History of Project"

The History of Chicken Soup
Contributed by: Rita Laat
Resident of Nevada

I have it on good authority* that this is what happened!

Years ago, in cave men times, there was a family of cave people who were well respected in their area.  The father was named Mark, the mother was Marcia, and they had three children.  The oldest was 8 years old and his name was Mark, Jr..  The next one was a girl, age 5, and her name was Marion.  The youngest was a boy, age 2 and his name was Rascal, because that is what he was.

Mark had made a wonderful cave for his family.  At the back of the cave he had a huge fireplace with three spaces for firewood.  He built a rack so that he could hang a large pot for water in two of the spaces.  The third space was for roasting meat for their dinners.  He also had spaces in the cave for them to sleep and to gather as a family to just talk.  He was looked up to in the region of the caves.  Of course, he was 6’4”, so it would be hard not to look up to him, right?

Anyway, as our story goes, the family had raised chickens, so they could eat if Dad had not brought home any meat to cook, or if it was not ready to be cooked.  Today was one of those days.  Mom had a garden and raised vegetables so that they could have a salad with their meat.  Dad, Mark, Jr. and Marion were in the yard plucking the chickens and cutting them up for their meal.  When one of the chickens was ready, Dad gave it to Marion to take into the cave.  She put it on the table so that her Mom could get it ready for roasting.  Mom was making a salad for their dinner.  Rascal was wandering around the cave.  While Mom was not looking, Rascal took some of the chicken and dropped it into the water in one of the pots.  He kept doing this until all the chicken was in the pot.  When Marion came back in with the second chicken she asked her Mom where the first chicken was.  Her Mom was puzzled because she didn’t remember seeing the first chicken at all.  But, at the same time they both started smelling something that they had never smelled before.  It really smelled good, but they didn’t have any idea what it was.  So, they checked the pot and determined that it contained the chicken that Marion had brought in earlier.  They called Dad and Mark, Jr. and they decided to investigate what had happened to the chicken in the pot.  Of course, they figured out that Rascal had dumped the chicken into the pot and were planning to give him what he deserved for being a rascal.  Well, when they pulled the chicken out of the pot it was really well-done and was almost falling off the bone.  They tasted it and it really tasted good. 

They decided that they would cook all the chicken that way and eat it with the salad.  They also tasted the water that had been cooked with the chicken and decided that it tasted pretty good, but it needed something.  (It was probably salt).   So they added salt to the water and cooked the chickens that were still there. Of course, since they were so happy with the results of the day they didn’t punish Rascal.  Instead, they praised him, hugged him and told him how wonderful he was, but he had better not ever do what he did today. 

That is how chicken soup came to be.  Aren’t you glad that you know that?   

(*Of course, my good authority is my imagination)

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