Note: I received this many months ago, but I’m working through a tremendous backlog of blog posts. Blame the “drafts” feature in WordPress.

From a small home in Lawton, Okla. comes a small brown package. A postal worker exchanges money for a series of stickers that guarantee passage through the wily Midwest. And just three days later, it rests on top of my mailbox in Peoria.

The package is undressed, and a cylindrical canister appears. “Adams Old Fashioned Peanut Brittle: a real nutty surprise,” it reads. I’m hungry, so this is good news. The lid pops off the antique metal container and three long SNAKES propel themselves across my living room. Says Mr. Harrison Ford: “Snakes… why did it have to be snakes?”

I remember this; my dad and I rummaging around his childhood home, him handing me the can and these fabric-covered springs jumping into my face. And now I’m a proud owner of a 1930s “snake in a can” from the famous S.S. Adams Company. Thanks to my aunt Anna!