Sights and Smells of the Past

      How about some blasts from the past? The other day I was on facebook and saw a post from Jeanie Torres, about what smells do you remember from your past and I thought I could blog about sights and smells from the past. Which do you remember?

      The first one that came to my mind was Evening in Paris perfume. My Mom used it and I was one of those kids that got carsick about five minutes after getting in the car so I remember that smell VERY WELL! Not only was Mom was wearing it, and it seemed every hankerchief she pulled out of her purse when I was about to puke smelled like it had been soaked in that stuff! I have an old bottle of it but needless to say i don't sniff it too often!

       Another one I had an adversion to was Petrocarbo salve. Traveling Watkins salesman always had plenty of that to peddle and my Mom and Grandma used it for anything. Another icky one.

       Vicks vaporub was a pleasant one. I liked the smell and I liked the love  that came when it was rubbed on your chest and neck when you were sick. The wool sock pinned around your neck I could have lived without. Combine that with the Vicks sniffing stick that you breathed in and we were good to go, and a cure for what ailed us most of the time. I still use Vicks to this day!

       Tinture of Mertholate was sure to get you screaming in pain if the skinned knee or open skin was a big one. It worked better to paint my sister up like Big Chief Isodine I'd seen on tv. Mom wasn't impressed and chewed me out a bit, while using everything from alcohol to Vasaline to rub it off Kathy's face. But this stuff went on before any bandaid, much to our dismay! Thank God for the invention of triple antibiodic salve huh?

         Resinol, was an ointment with that Mom put on her dermatitis on her forehead and around her nose. It smelled like bacon and she wore it to bed everynight. I hated that smell.

 

      Juneberry trees, were a wonderful sight! They bloom in the spring and berries get ready in July. NO pie is better than Juneberry pie!

         The arroma from lilac bushes is wonderful! When our daughter Shelbey got married they were her reception flowers. The men in the family all went out to the farm and cut lilacs for her the morning of the wedding. They smelled so nice!

 

        Mom loved pussywillows even drying some once and spraying them with fixative. The little furry buds are called catkins.

       Crocus flowers seem to magically appear right after the snow drifts disappear on praire land. We loved to pick crocus flowers and find the prettiest little juice glass Mom had to stuff the furry stems in. We wont mention all the little black bugs that come crawling out from nowhere!

 

      Bleeding hearts, were one of my Mom's favorite flowers. She had some tractor tires, cut in half, painted black and white, and layed up against her little farmhouse. She loved to take us on a tour of her flowers, pointing them all out by name. There were always johnny jump ups, pansys, tiger lillies and bleeding hearts.

 

       Inside the house Mom always had a cactus bowl. She always enjoyed spending time in Arizona, and this was her way of bringing a little bit of Arizona home to North Dakota. She was like I am and loved both places. 

        I'm sure you have some I have forgotton. What sights and smells do you remember from your past?