It’s amazing how you remember small parts of our childhood as you grow older.
As the half-century mark of my life looms ever closer (in just a little over five years and I’ll be [gulp] 50), I find myself remembering the oddest bits and pieces of my life so far.
For instance, the hint of honeysuckle in the air sends me back to my boyhood. I remember lying in my bed on early summer nights enjoying the cool breeze from our large, metal-bladed “pull” fan and drinking in the perfume of those honeysuckle vines growing along the back fence.
Just one whiff and I’m back to being 11 years old, listening to the breeze stir the leaves of our catalpa tree that grew just outside my bedroom window, the steady hum of the powerful fan, and dreaming of camping trips with my friends under the stars.
Before I discovered what one scoutmaster described as the two “fumes” (car fumes and perfume), I loved camping more than just about anything in life. I loved the musty smell of our old canvas tent. I loved slipping inside a soft sleeping bag after a tiring day of hiking, setting up camp, cooking, and telling stories around the campfire. I loved the smell of woodsmoke, ashes in my scrambled eggs, the sharp bite of “bug juice” (usually Tang, the drink of the astronauts, or (Oh YEAH!) Kool-Aid. (You can’t say Kool-Aid without saying “Oh YEAH!”) I loved being in nature, and being a part of it.
Yes, it’s amazing how many wonderful memories the smell of honeysuckle can conjure up. And today, amidst the wildness that is my backyard, there’s a honeysuckle vine growing up along my back fence.
It seemed our houses were so much better ventilated back then. The little home I grew up in was uninsulated, meaning you baked in the summer, froze in the winter. But it seemed we made it through, staying outside during the summer and resting in the shade or bundling up under layers of quilts and blankets in the winter.
It also seemed like we were more of a part of the neighborhood. Few of our neighbors had central air conditioning. Most, like us, had a big window fan with a toggle switch that allowed the fan to change directions: “Blow” during the day, which would bring in fresh (but hot) air from the outdoors not only through the fan, but any open window in the house; and “pull” at night, which pulled hot air out of the house and forced cooler night air into open windows.
