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Smellories

During the course of the day yesterday, I had two incidents where my childhood hit me square in the nose.

The first instance was a trip to Orscheln Farm & Home store. Everybody in Seward pronounces the name of this store “Orsh’-lin”. I don’t know why. But it reminded me of my childhood because of the way it smells. It is a mix of rubber and feed and poison and grass seed. It smells, in fact, exactly like a store called Gimble’s that used to be just down the street from my Grandpa and Grandma Royuk’s in Arlington, Nebraska. As a kid, I’d spend many days in Gimble’s looking at pocket knives and toys. And I always opened and smelled the catfish bait even though it smelled really bad.

A guy came out of the store right after this picture and wondered what I was doing.  I drove away quickly.

The second instance of childhood remembrance was a simple trip to Lloyd and Lauren’s shed. It smells just like a building at my Grandpa and Grandma Hummel’s old farm place. The smell is a mix of dirt and oil and wood and gasoline. At my grandparents’ place, I was always worried about wasps. But there are no wasps in Lloyd and Lauren’s shed. I’m actually pretty mystified by that.

I needed the wheelbarrow.

10 Comments

  1. Deanne

    Smelling the catfish bait… it’s all part of creating a mental catalogue of experiences.

  2. Lloyd

    That’s not our spreader. We don’t have a spreader, do we? Is the Creeping Charlie all dead and you are reseeding or have you opened a crematorium and are spreading ashes that?

    • Lloyd

      Dang it – that’s me, not Lloyd. How do I fix that?

      P.S. My dad wants to know if you’re ‘interceding’. Ha ha ha.

      • Lauren

        Oh. Like that. I’ve been rather tired/lazy lately and don’t even look at the Name (required) box. Chalk it up to being an idiot.

        • Brad

          I’ll leave the comments alone so your follow ups make sense.

          I got some granular poison for the Creeping Charlie, but the ground hasn’t been wet enough to use it. I may just have to wet the lawn with the hose.

  3. Carol

    You and your nose/brain connection had a great day, didn’t you (all)? That’s pretty cool…

    Smemories (as I call ’em) are marvelous, aren’t they? The cellar of the paternal grandparents always had barrels of spices Grandpop used in the sausage-making: sage, fennel, coriander, you name it. When there are barrels (rather than tiny McCormick jars-full) they can really fill the air with olefactory stimuli. I rarely find a place that smells that strong of spices any more (have to make a field trip to Hunt Valley some day, eh?), but when I do it takes me right back… ah! …

  4. Peggy

    Haha…this post made me laugh! Smells of poison, dirt, etc…ha!

    I love when I smell a certain kind of rubber or plastic. It’s the smell of Christmas toys for me. Ahhhhh!

    As for the catfish bait, I think it’s pretty common knowledge that all guys are infatuated with stinky smells.

  5. auntie linda

    It was Gambles Brad, not Gimbles…Happy 10th of July!
    auntie linda

  6. auntie linda

    However, Paul said there was a large department store in New York called Gimbel’s…
    btw, you spent FIVE hours in Lincoln and we got not even a phone call?????!!!!#@$

    • Brad

      Oops. I must’ve watched “A Miracle on 32nd Street” too many times. They talk about Gimbel’s in that movie.

      Sorry about not calling. It was supposed to be just a quick trip to Lincoln.

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