I remember eating at Pea Soup Andersen's during my childhood. Given that my family lived in the Los Angeles area, we likely visited the original restaurant in Buellton, California. Every time I see a restaurant-like building with a windmill, I think of Pea Soup Andersen's.
Yes, there was also the Van de Kamp's coffee shop chain. I remember stopping at those a few times with my parents too. Those restaurants looked entirely different, and for whatever reason, I don't recall our visits there with any fondness.
The Pea Soup Andersen windmills rise like landmarks in my memory. Far from viewing them as enemies, like Don Quixote in Miguel de Cervantes' famous novel, I view them as old friends. If only I had specific memories of dining there.
All I recall is a fragment: my father telling me that we were just ordering the soup, nothing more. But then, I also remember my father telling me we were just ordering chili once when we went out to a Marie Callender's restaurant. So is my Pea Soup Andersen's fragment genuine, or an incident my mind pasted into the gap to enhance my recollections?
Recently, while returning from visiting a family member, we stopped for gas along an unfamiliar stretch of road in the northern California town of Santa Nella.
And. There. It. Was. Pea Soup Andersen's!
It was morning, we'd already eaten breakfast, and we were on a schedule. Alas...
After
my father left us, I have very definite memories of eating canned split
pea soup. Usually it was Campbell's, but sometimes it was Andersen's. I
guess the variety became something of a favorite for my mother and me.
So, not often, but occasionally, I saw those famous windmills on a can
in the family cupboard.
My mother also took me and my grandparents on a driving trip along the California coast after my father passed away. We could have stopped at the location in Santa Nella (or for that matter, the one in Buellton). I don't know if did, but for some irrational, inexplicable reason, I want to think we did.
Dragon Dave
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