Have you ever caught a whiff of something and it trigger a memory? Sometimes the scent of something not only triggers a memory, it can transport me back in time.

The other day I was walking through the mall when an aroma enveloped me took me back sixty years. A vendor was roasting nuts at one of those temporary stands that are set up around Christmas time.

Suddenly I was back at the house where I grew up. Mother was just removing a cookie sheet covered with roasted pecans from the oven. In my mind’s eye I could see and smell those darkened pecan halves sprinkled with salt coming from the stove.

My mother was young again, wearing an apron she had made. (Do people wear aprons anymore?) I looked around and there was the old percolator on the counter. A wire basket of freshly gathered eggs sat nearby. Looking through the window over our white porcelain sink was my father’s 56 Dodge pickup. Daddy had recently made cattle-hauler panels for it. On the right of the sink was a pegboard grocery list mounted on a cabinet.

A white plastic radio tuned to WLSM perched below the cabinet. Further to the right was the door leading to the back porch and I could see through its glass the smoke house my grandfather had built long before I was born.

To the other side of the door was the kitchen table. A picture of Jesus Mother had cross-stitched hung on the wall at the table’s end. On the half wall that separated the stove from the dining area hung cast iron rooster trivets. On that half wall was a visible mark a table knife had made. I had thrown it at my oldest brother one morning at breakfast. I’m glad he ducked. Mornings were a little trying for me when I was a kid. Not so much nowadays. Coffee helps.

On counter opposite the stove sat glass covered candy dishes filled with praulines, divinity and ginger snaps. Through the door I can could see a Japanese fruitcake, coconut , red velvet, and caramel cakes sitting on the buffet table. The chocolate pie was chilling on the back porch.

All familiar aromas from my childhood.

Suddenly I passed the mall’s roasted nut stand and was jolted back to reality as I walked by Starbucks. - Ahhh. Coffee.

In the short span of a few feet a different scent had transported me from my youth back to being a senior citizen.

Such are the strange thoughts that ramble through an old man’s mind.

_______________
Rick Algood
December 14, 2019