The smell of roasting turkey is an indication of the season. Some smells can trigger memories just as quickly as a picture.
The smell of pine brings back memories of past Christmas seasons to people. Oranges and tangerines do that for me because we could not have live pine in the house at Christmas. My brother had bronchitis growing up and pine really did a number on him. We always got fruit for Christmas and the smell of citrus reminds me of the season.
Our Christmas tree was one of those silver aluminum ones that were popular in the day. Mom had gotten a color wheel to go behind it. It rotated around and had four different colors that made the tree change from green to yellow to red to blue. Now the fiber optics trees do the same thing. Momma Said, “It is funny how things fade away only to come around again, just a newer and more improved model.”
We always got a new coat and a new pair of boots for Christmas. Other than that it was always something small that we could afford. I always wanted a pony but never got one. I finally did get a horse when I was 16 and that was a big day, I was on top of the world.
If we were lucky we would get a new sled. You know the kind, the plastic saucer type. I will share a story with you; the hill behind our house was the neighbor’s cow pasture, it was also the sledding hill. When you are sliding down a hill very fast with nothing between you and the cold hard ground but a thin piece of plastic, the cow pies are not very forgiving. You never saw them coming until it was too late. You reach the bottom of the hill and you find your legs don’t want to work because you are partially paralyzed due to sudden impact with a frozen pile of cow poop. But, amazingly, it didn’t seem to faze us then. When we could finally walk again, back to the top we would trudge. We would be out there all day, freezing, and never let it affect us at all. When you are young it seems you are invincible but now I don’t even like to get cold.
I feel for the people in the Midwest who are getting slammed with the ice storm this week. It looks like it may go north of us and that is just fine with me. Momma Said, “Stay warm and safe.”