From Exploding Soup to Pieces of History

​Life has a way of giving us stories that are not funny in the moment, but become some of our favorites years later. Award-winning author and storyteller Marlene Ratledge Buchanan shares one of those memories from her childhood, when her family woke early one Sunday morning to what sounded like gunshots coming from the basement. Her father, a detective, rushed downstairs armed, while her mother followed with a shotgun. The culprit turned out to be much less dangerous and much smellier. Thirty-four Mason jars of homemade vegetable soup had begun exploding after the butter beans fermented. What started as a frightening morning became the legendary "butterbean war," a family story they laughed about for years afterward.

That story captures a larger theme in Buchanan's outlook on life: humor can help us get through difficult moments. She explains that she has always been able to find funny things in life, but she also saw the value of laughter while working with children in crisis. Getting a child to laugh or even smile could interrupt that feeling of doom and help them recognize that there was another, more hopeful side to their situation. Buchanan connects that philosophy to something her mother taught her: "time takes care of all things, but you can make it a whole lot smoother if you smile." Laughter does not erase hardship, but it can change how we carry it.

Buchanan's stories also show how humor, family memories, and history can become intertwined. She shares the remarkable story of her father's service on the Seventh Hospital Train in Germany during World War II, where his ability to repair machinery helped get a captured train moving toward Allied territory. She still has a piece from Hitler's personal dining car that was given to her father after he repaired the locomotive, along with hundreds of letters he wrote during the war. From exploding vegetable soup to treasured pieces of family history, Buchanan's storytelling finds meaning in the moments people carry with them. Life may be hard, but sometimes a story, a smile, and a little laughter can make the road feel softer.