South Sea Soup

Imagine being invited to a cocktail party and being served this. My thoughts would be:

1. I dressed up for this?
2. Did they get these mugs at the thrift store or from the library staff room?

3. I'm not trying any of those! (and where are the spoons?)

Here is the photo from the McCalls Cocktail Time chapter Cocktail Soups.

Notice the murky green one at the bottom with odd objects floating in there:
South Sea Soup

1 pkg dry green-pea-soup mix

2 tablespoons finely grated orange peel

1/3 cup orange juice

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 teaspoon mace

Popcorn

In medium saucepan, combine all ingredients except popcorn with 4 cups water, stir until well mixed. Cook uncovered over medium heat, 10 minutes.

Serve at once in mugs (why?). Top each serving with several kernels of popcorn.

Who thought of this nonsense?

I'm not even touching the nasty brown substance with the floating white thing in the picture. What do you think it is? That's like a creative fiction writing exercise.