The Smell in the Air Conditioner

I was working away at my desk the other day when the air conditioner kicked on. It wasn't long before I noticed a musty smell drifting into my nostrils. It's funny what will take you back in time. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on the chair. I was immediately taken back to the late 60's, early 70's when I was a little girl. I use to visit my grandparents on their farm for the summers. I loved being there in Yale, Oklahoma.

But I remember one day, my grandmother wanted to go visit a couple of her friends. My dad drove her out as my grandmother did not drive. They took me along.

I remember stepping into the little houses where the little old women lived and that musty old house smell lingered. I associated that smell with old women; women with grey buns at the back of their necks and bib aprons over their housedresses. I was polite as I sat on the sofa and listened to my grandmother visit away with her friends. I remember looking around and seeing old photographs on the wall and on their end tables; family pictures sitting on top of aged looking doilies. I can still feel the breeze in my mind from their open windows. No one back then had air conditioners. Farm folks always had their windows open during the summer. I can still hear the crickets making their music. I can still see my dad, although polite, fidgeting. He probably didn't want to be there any more than I did. I wanted to get back to my grandparents farm where I could run and play and get a Dr. Pepper bottle out the fridge.

Decades later, I now live in the country. I have old family photographs in my home. I even have old doilies, although most of them are inside a drawer. I have Dr. Pepper in my fridge, although it is not in the tall, glass bottles I remember that said 10, 2, and 4. My Dr. Pepper is in boring, plastic bottles or aluminum cans. And my air conditioner is giving off a musty smell.

I wonder when the neighbor kids come inside my home, if they look at me as the old woman who lives in a musty house.  (I hope the smell instead is all those cleaners I use. . .the scent of Windex, Comet, and 4-09!) I do not have a gray bun at the back of my neck and I don't wear housedresses. But that smell. . .I think I will go light my rose candle. . .after I daydream some more of the farm where I had some of my best memories, including seeing my bunned grandmother dressed up and with lipstick on. She only wore it when going out visiting. I miss her! 

I just might wait on that candle for another day and continue to take in the musty smell and remember. Maybe that's what those little ol' ladies were doing way back then, in their musty houses. . .remembering.

 

Are there any smells that take you back to childhood?