Hilda's
Homily
Nasal Nostalgia
by Hilda Maston
After
shampooing, I opened a bottle of conditioner, and all of
a sudden I smelled peaches! Kind of nice, but
surprising. Peach conditioner was followed by
strawberry shower soap, followed by lemon-scented
conditioner and green apple hair spray. I came out of
the shower smelling like a fruit salad. That's not so
bad, but wait a minute.
In other
rooms there are air fresheners that smell like cloves,
lemon-scented furniture polish, and orange-smelling all
-purpose cleaner. And dishwashing liquid often smells
like lime or lemon
Not only
the bathroom and kitchen, but every room in the house is
affected by this trend. Aromatherapy on a large scale.
Scented candles in the bedroom and bath, and plug-in
scent-makers in the living room.
I
remember waking up to the smell of cinnamon rolls
baking, which competed with the sweet odor of the lilac
bush right outside my open window. Coming downstairs, I
could smell the coffee perking and the bacon
sputtering. Worth waking up for wasn't it?
Nothing
can compare with the smell of your first brand-new baby
or the sweaty little boy dashing in from an hour of bike
riding.
Then
there were the winter smells; did you know that freshly
fallen snow has a wonderful, clear bright smell?
Well-water, when it gushes from the pump smells like
iron filings, and who can forget the smell of the fresh
hay-mow, when the last load has been brought in from the
field?
I think
it would be a good idea to go back to the world of real
smells; of food cooking, the grass after a rain, garden
flowers, the smell of new books, newspaper ink, and gym
socks (clean ones of course). All of these have a place
in our lives and are well-remembered. You remember the
scent of jam cooking, wind blowing through freshly
washed curtains, and flowers on the coffee table, each
in itself a boon.
Well, we
can't live in the past, can we? But we remember, with
fondness, the old smells that were not made in a
laboratory somewhere.
Sunday Afternoon 12:30
I walked
up to the counter of the Drug Store to pay for my
purchases. (I bought some rubbing alcohol as it's
wonderful for cleaning windows.)I opened my purse to get
out my wallet, when I discovered there was no wallet
there. Frantically I rummaged in my purse... still no
wallet. Then I remembered that the last time I had
opened my purse was during coffee hour when I gave my
granddaughter some mints. Could my wallet have dropped
out then? I got on my cell phone to call Aiya -- maybe
she was still at church -- but her phone was shut off.
I thought of a couple other people I could call, but no,
those numbers were in my wallet which was missing!
I very
carefully drove to church.
(My
driver's license was in my wallet, too.)
It was my lucky day. There was my wallet right by the
chair I had been sitting on during coffee hour.
The
moral of the story?
(a
church newspaper has to have a moral)
Put those cell phone numbers in your cell phone or
somewhere besides your wallet.
