"It's Bean a long time"

I was about 3 when this happened. My grandmother was staying in Port Washington for the summer and my Aunt Rosette was at home, doing all the cooking, cleaning and running the house in general. She had just finished cleaning the entire kitchen when my Uncle Vinny come home and wanted to cook something for lunch. My aunt yelled and said that she just got done and he would make a mess and she warned him not to dirty the stove or anything else. So my uncle, ignoring her, took a can of pork and beans but also not wanting to upset his sister, had a great idea. He would place the can of unopened beans in a pot and heat them up. This way, the pot would not get dirty and there would be no mess at all. He placed the pot on the stove and turned it on. The next thing I remember was hearing a load explosion and my aunt screaming. My mother and my aunt Millie went running into the apartment, there was my uncle, looking around and my aunt punching him. The can of beans had exploded and there were beans dripping off the ceiling, all over the walls and floor and the stove top was frying the beans that landed all over it. They told Vinny to get out and they try to quiet Rosette down. Needless to say, it took the three of them all afternoon to clean up the mess. I remember that Vinny was missing for about 5 hours, afraid to come home and Rosette still screaming that he would never eat in her kitchen again. Eventually, Vinny came home and Rosette settled down and life went on at good old "521"....oh yes,everyone was warned never to tell my grandmother when she came home. I guess the motto of the story is, "when you have beans, can a loud explosion be far behind ?".

note: the picture of the stove is almost a replica of the one my grandmother and all the others in the house had. I remember my mothers was much bigger. It have 3 or 4 ovens and 6 burners on a smooth flat top, much like to modern electric stoves of today. It was an oil stove, made of cast iron and coated in green enamel. An oil tank stood in front of the stove to the side and that is how you cooked. In the winter it was the only source of heat in the entire apartment. There are other stories about these stoves but that is for another time.